2007 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

Paper Corruption and Anti-Corruption
Monica Dorhoi, World Bank
Overview: How and why anti-corruption reforms vary across
countries is still an open question. The paper will present results of
the latest World Bank study of anti-corruption reforms in 77
countries from 5 continents.
Paper Bureaucratic Corruption, Judicial Independence, and Public
Power
Gang Wang, Michigan State University
Overview: Bureaucratic corruption is a product of a certain society
with specific economic and political structures, and the judiciary,
as an institutional arrangement to resist bureaucratic corruption,
has to be independent to the government.
Disc. Phil Keefer, World Bank
5-10 INSTITUTIONS AND POLITICAL CAREERS
Room Salon 4, 3 rd Floor, Fri at 8:00 am
Chair Andreas D. Kopp, OECD
Paper Electoral Institutions and the Internal Organization of
Legislatures
Shane Martin, Pennsylvania State University
Overview: Exploring the issue from a comparative perspective, I
argue that the relationship between electoral ballot structure and
committee system structure is dependent on how incumbents are
expected to cultivate a personal vote - what I term the
mechanisms.
Paper Parliamentary Cycles, Legislative Party Switching, and the
Midterm Effect
Carol Mershon, University of Virginia
Olga Shvetsova, Binghamton University
Overview: For Italy, Russia, Spain, and the U.S., we identify
heightened party switching for office benefits, policy advantage,
and vote seeking at distinct stages in the parliamentary cycle. We
also find a midterm peak in switching in all four cases.
Paper Career Goals and Legislative Behavior in the European
Parliament
Dan Pemstein, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Steve Meserve, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
William Bernhard, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Overview: We argue that career goals—whether to return home or
stay in Brussels--affect legislative behavior in the European
Parliament.
Paper Where Have All the Zoku Gone? Electoral Rules and MP
Specialization in Japan
Benjamin Nyblade, University of British Columbia
Ellis Krauss, University of California, San Diego
Robert Pekkanen, University of Washington
Overview: Political career path analysis of MPs in Japan over the
last 30 years shows that the 1994 adoption of a mixed electoral
system increased specialization by PR-based MPs and decreased it
by SMD-based MPs.
Disc. Andreas D. Kopp, OECD
Juliana Bambaci, Stanford University
7-6 LABOR AND THE EUROPEAN STATE
Room Sandburg 7, 7 th Floor, Fri at 8:00 am
Chair Julia Gray, University of California, Los Angeles
Paper Institutional Constraints to a Streamlined EU Social Model:
Childcare in Comparison
Katja E. Vermehren, University of Colorado
Overview: This paper will analyze institutional constraints within
the different welfare state systems on more streamlined childcare
policies in the EU.
Paper The Politics of Retrenchment in the European Union: Why is
It so Difficult to Reform the EU Agricultural Policies?
Isa Camyar, Louisiana State University
Overview: In this project, I explore the prospects and possibilities
of reforming the EU agricultural policies. Relying Pierson's new
politics thesis, I claim that the EU agricultural policies have
created client-based interest groups, which enjoy concentrated
benefits.
Paper Social Pacts in Western Europe: Economic and Political
Institutions
Kerstin Hamann, University of Central Florida
John Kelly, Birkbeck College
Overview: We identify the role of economic and electoral
institutions to explain the presence or absence of social pacts. In
particular, we look at the role of electoral competition to explain
when governments prefer social pacts over legislative action.
Disc. Julia Gray, University of California, Los Angeles
8-6 CITIZEN PERCEPTIONS OF LATIN AMERICAN
GOVERNMENTS
Room Sandburg 6, 7 th Floor, Fri at 8:00 am
Chair Moises Arce, University of Missouri, Columbia
Paper Presidential Approval in Good and Bad Times: The Peruvian
Case
Julio F. Carrion, University of Delaware
Moises E. Arce, University of Missouri, Columbia
Overview: We use an ARCH model that accounts for economic
and political volatility to analyze the impact of economic
performance and key political events on presidential approval in
Peru for the 1985-2005 period.
Paper The Political, Social, and Economic Determinants of
Presidential Approval in Latin America
Gregg B. Johnson, SUNY, Buffalo
Sooh-Rhee Ryu, SUNY, Buffalo
Overview: This paper uses a unique cross-national, time-serial
dataset of presidential approval in 10 Latin American nations to
determine the political and economic factors driving public
support for and against presidents during the volatile 1990s and
2000s.
Paper Neoliberal Reformers and Trust: Voter Responses to Reform
in Latin America
Lia K. Roberts, Mount St. Mary's College
Overview: Neoliberal reformers have met with discontent in some
countries and won re-election in others. Analyzing elections in
Latin America, this paper shows that party characteristics and
voter calculations of trust drive voter decisions.
Paper Trust Them, Trust Them Not: Trust in Latin American
Political Institutions
Ashley D. Ross, Texas A&M University
Maria C. Escobar-Lemmon, Texas A&M University
Overview: Using survey data from 5 Latin American cases we
identify the role of socioeconomic status, education, and partisan
identification in predicting an individual’s trust in political
institutions after accounting for level of democracy and wealth.
Paper The Micro-Economics of Corruption in Argentina
Luigi Manzetti, Southern Methodist University
Overview: We analyze the relationship between individual level
economic factors and perception of corruption in Argentina. We
then look at the consequences of these perceptions for citizens'
candidate evaluations, participation and vote choice.
Disc. Julio F. Carrion, University of Delaware
Jana Morgan, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
9-4 FOREIGN POLICY IN THE PACIFIC REGION -
DETERMINANTS
Room Sandburg 5, 7 th Floor, Fri at 8:00 am
Chair Yongwook RYU, Harvard University
Paper Dilemma of Openness, Societal Forces in China's Japan Policy
Making
Yufan Hao, University of Macau
Overview: This article examines the increasing influence of
various domestic factors such as academics, media, and public
opinion, within the context of newly developed internet
technology, on the making of China's Japan policy.
Paper Reconciliation: Structure, Political Regime, Economics or
Apology?
Yangmo Ku, George Washington University
Overview: This paper examines various reasons why South Korea
and Japan could not reach the level of reconciliation France and
Germany achieved. The main cause derives from the absence of
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