2007 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

Disc. Susan L. Gaffney, Governors State University
Rich Braunstein, University of South Dakota
32-5 RAWLS AND HIS LEGACY
Room LaSalle 1, 7 th Floor, Fri at 9:50 am
Chair Frank Lovett, Washington University, St. Louis
Paper Rawls's Theory of Justice, The Aristotelian Principle, and the
Contingent Nature of Politics
Sezgin S. Cebi, Rockefeller University, Albany
Overview: In this paper I argue that Rawls' rather inadequate
understanding of the contingent nature of politics renders the
Aristotelian Principle Rawls vehemently subscribe to for his ideal
politics something unrealizable.
Paper Rawls and Rousseau’s Political Projects: Two Sides of the
Same Coin?
Johnny Goldfinger, Indiana University Purdue University,
Indianapolis
Overview: This paper discusses strong parallels in Rawls’s
Political Liberalism and Rousseau’s On the Social Contract. Five
key features of political liberalism are identified. Equivalent
concepts are then identified in Rousseau’s political project.
Paper A Return to Public Reason
Michael Ravvin, Columbia University
Overview: Current political trends demand a renewed
consideration of the idea of public reason. This paper will evaluate
the Rawlsian conception of public reason in light of prominent
criticisms and propose some necessary modifications.
Paper (Re)Discovering the Foundations of Liberalism in the
Rawlsian Ommission
Stephen A. Seagrave, University of Notre Dame
Overview: In Liberalism and the Limits of Justice, Sandel
attempts to use a critique of Rawls’ Theory of Justice as a means
of undermining deontological liberalism itself. Rawls’
deficiencies, however, in fact contain the seeds of liberalism’s
salvation.
Paper Reconsidering Rawls's Self-Respect Argument for the Priority
of Liberty
James R. Zink, University of California, Davis
Overview: In contrast with critics who reduce Rawlsian selfrespect
to socioeconomic status, I show how Rawls’s special
conception of self-respect cannot be satisfied by equalizing status.
This reading strengthens the justification for the priority of liberty.
Disc. Michael T. Rogers, Lindsey Wilson College
33-14 THE POLITICS OF THE AESTHETIC: ART,
GRAPHICS, FASHION, AND POETRY
Room Clark 1, 7 th Floor, Fri at 9:50 am
Chair Michaele Ferguson, University of Colorado, Boulder
Paper Liberal Art: Künst and Citizenship in Kant’s Third Critique
Christian R. Donath, University of California, San Diego
Overview: While most political theory focuses on the role of
reflective judgment in Kant’s Third Critique, the political
dimensions of art itself have been overlooked. I argue that an
examination of this relationship helps us better understand Kant’s
politics.
Paper Inquiry Into Democracy: Visualizing the Public
James Johnson, University of Rochester
Overview: The paper suggests how recent thinking about visual
displays of numerical information can enter into the construction
of democratic publics.
Paper Black Fashion as a Political Form
Joshua I. Miller, Lafayette College
Overview: An exploration of appearance and politics as it has
been manifested in the African-American experience since World
War II. I will address the question: is appearance political, and if
so, how?
Paper Poetry and a Politics of Vulnerability
Larry M. Preston, Union Institute & University
Overview: The paper suggests that the vulnerability which is
central to a poetic sensibility and to writing poetry provides
important insights into the study of politics in this time of
sustained social and political vulnerability.
Disc. Michaele Ferguson, University of Colorado, Boulder
33-29 CONSTITUTIONS AND INSTITUTIONS
Room Dearborn 2, 7 th Floor, Fri at 9:50 am
Chair Mary Liston, University of Toronto
Paper The Promise of Constitutional Binding: Democratic Bulwark
or Tautology?
Alexander S. Kirshner, Yale University
Overview: This essay accounts for why entrenching a rule in the
constitution actually makes that rule more likely to bind political
actors. Using this account, the essay re-examines the legitimacy
of constitutional precommitment.
Paper When Constitutions Work and Last? The Constituent Power
Revisited
Andrea Pozas-Loyo, New York University
Overview: I propose a typology of the constituent power that aims
to capture constitutionalism’s dynamic and legal/political nature,
in order to create analytic categories for comparative research on
constitutional efficacy and stability.
Paper Reasons, Obligations, Institutions
Ricardo Vudoyra, Washington University, St. Louis
Overview: If legal systems are institutions, what role do rights,
obligations, and duties play in their establishment, change, and
maintenance? The advantages of an institutional interpretation of
rights and obligations are shown.
Disc. Mary Liston, University of Toronto
34-3 COLLECTIVE CHOICE
Room Dearborn 1, 7 th Floor, Fri at 9:50 am
Chair Andreas K. Warntjen, London School of Economics
Paper Choosing Agenda Procedures: When to Tie Your Own Hands
Scott Moser, Carnegie Mellon University
Overview: We compare a few simple alternative agenda forms.
Depending on uncertainty and the degree of partisan voting, we
find groups may wish to adopt an extreme form of collective
decision-making, namely to preclude an option from even being
voted on.
Paper The Probability of Sen's Liberal Paradox
Keith L. Dougherty, University of Georgia
Julian Edward, Florida International University
Overview: This paper determines the probability of a conflict
between acyclicity, weak Pareto, and minimal liberalism in a
relatively unrestricted domain, using probability experiments on a
two dimensional spatial voting model.
Paper The Structure of Heresthetical Power
Elizabeth M. Penn, Harvard University
Scott Moser, Carnegie Mellon University
Overview: Using the Banks set, we present and characterize
alternatives that can, and those that cannot, affect sophisticated
collective decision making.
Paper The "Minimum-Sum Point" as a Solution Concept in Spatial
Voting
Tse-min Lin, University of Texas, Austin
Overview: This paper explores the geometric and behavioral
properties of the minimum-sum point as a solution concept in
spatial voting.
Paper Some Simple Arithmetic on Pivotal Voting
Howard Margolis, University of Chicago
Overview: In the “Minimum game” players robustly coordinate on
their worst payoff. This has always been attributed to strategic
uncertainty. But attention to details of the many results argues
strongly against that. I propose an entirely different account.
Disc. Matias Iaryczower, California Institute of Technology
35-6 LATENT SPACE MODELS
Room Montrose 2, 7 th Floor, Fri at 9:50 am
Chair Adam Glynn, Harvard University
Paper Proxmire and the Golden Fleece: Searching for Maverick
Legislators in Spatial Voting Errors
Benjamin E. Lauderdale, Princeton University
Overview: I derive a Bayesian estimation procedure for recovering
the width of individuals’ response error distributions from roll-call
data, allowing quantitative measurement of which members of the
U.S. Congress are mavericks.
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