2014 Pre-IPSA Workshop:

“Citizens, Parties, and Electoral Contexts”

Friday 18th July 2014

Montreal, Canada

Details

Date: Friday 18th July 2014
Location: Palais de Congress, Montréal, Canada
Co-Chairs: Prof. Elisabeth Gidengil (McGill University) and Dr. Ferran Martinez i Coma (University of Sydney)
Organizer: Making Electoral Democracy Work; the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship; the Electoral Integrity Project; and the IPSA Research Section on Elections, Citizens and Parties

Conference Theme

The study of how citizens and parties act within different electoral contexts is a rapidly growing focus of comparative research. The Making Electoral Democracy Work (MEDW) project aims to examine how the rules of the game (especially the electoral system) and the electoral context (especially the competitiveness and salience of an election) influence the dynamic and reciprocal relationship between voters and parties in several long-established democratic states (Canada, France, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland). The Electoral Integrity Project widens the perspective still further, by examining how the quality of any contest and common malpractices affect citizens and elites in national elections in countries worldwide. This workshop presented papers using multiple methods and approaches which seek to tackle several related questions:

What impact do electoral rules and electoral integrity have on citizen’s participation, especially voting turnout and campaign activism?
What impact do electoral rules and electoral integrity have on political representation, especially the accountability of elected officials to citizens?
What impact do electoral rules and electoral integrity have on party choice and voting behavior?
What impact do electoral rules and electoral integrity have on the behavior of political parties?

Panels

8.30-09.00

Arrival and registration

9.00-09.30

Welcome

Introduction to the Making Electoral Democracy Work Project and the Electoral Integrity Project

Elisabeth Gidengil, Pippa Norris and Ferran Martinez i Coma

09.30-11.00

Panel 1: Campaigns and the vote

Chair

Chair: Karin Riedl, CUNY

Papers

Negative Campaigning in Multicandidate Contests, Indridi Indridason, University of California at Riverside, Matt Golder, Pennsylvania State University and Thomas Gschwend, University of Manheim

Campaigns and Cross-Level Partisanship, Laura Stephenson, University of Western Ontario, and Éric Bélanger, McGill University

The Impact of Electoral Systems on Personal Vote Strategies. A Field Experiment on German MPs, Damien Bol, Université de Montréal, Thomas Gschwend, University of Mannheim, Thomas Zittel, Goethe University Frankfurt, Steffen Zittlau, University of Mannheim

Perceptions of Corruption: Does the Level of Government Make a Difference? André Blais, Université de Montréal and Elisabeth Gidengil, McGill University, Anja Kilibarda, Université de Montréal

Discussant

Peter Miller, University of Pennsylvania

09.30-11.00

Panel 2: Determinants and consequences of Electoral Integrity

Chair

Chad Vickery, IFES

Papers

Bullets over Ballots: How Electoral Exclusion Sparks Political Violence and Chills Participation, Brian Klaas, Oxford University

Gender and Electoral Integrity: Combating Violence against Women in Politics, Mona Lena Krook, Rutgers University

Capturing Campaigns’ Effects on Democratic Satisfaction: Evidence from a Panel Study in Uganda, Nicholas Kerr, University of Alabama and Jeff Conroy-Krutz, Michigan State University

Beat Me If You Can: The Fairness of Elections in Dictatorships, Masaaki Higashijima, Michigan State University

Discussant

Allyson Benton, CIDE

11.00-11.30

Coffee/tea

11.30-1.00

Panel 3. Voting turnout

Chair

Katharina Jaronicki, University of Pennsylvania

Papers

Compulsory Voting, Voter Turnout, and Income Inequality, John Carey, Dartmouth College and Yusaku Horiuchi, Darmouth College

Elections as Poor Reflections of Preferences under Compulsory Voting, Shane Singh, University of Georgia

High Turnout in the Low Countries: Partisan Effects of Turnout in Belgium and The Netherlands, Peter Miller, University of Pennsylvania and Ruth Dassoneville, University of Leuven

Swing Voters and Motivated Cognitive Reasoning, Matthew Byrne, University of British Columbia and Pascal Doray-Demers, Université de Montréal

Cooperating for fairness: the role of electoral institutions in generating legislation aimed at protecting vulnerable sectors in society in the sub-Saharan African region, Karin Riedl, The Graduate Center, CUNY

Discussant

Damien Bol, Universite de Montréal

11.30-1.00

Panel 4. Perceptions of Electoral Integrity

Chair

Mona Lena Krook, Rutgers University

Papers

Electoral rules, performance and perceptions of electoral integrity, Todd Donovan, Western Washington University, and Shaun Bowler, UC Riverside

Distrust without Controversy: Determinants of Perceptions of Election Transparency in Contemporary Argentina, Julia Pomares, Center for the Implementation of Public Policies Promoting Equity and Growth (CIPPEC)

Impact of Perceptions of Election Integrity on Electoral Participation: The Case of Ukraine Staffan Darnolf, IFES, and Rakesh Sharma, IFES

(How) Does Electoral Integrity Affect Turnout? Ferran Martinez i Coma, The University of Sydney, and Minh Trinh, Harvard University

Discussant

Brian Klaas, University of Oxford

1.00-2.30

Panel 5: Breakout roundtables during buffet lunch

In this breakout session, led by practitioners, groups at each table will be asked to discuss two issues: What are the practical barriers to knowledge sharing among practitioners and scholars in the research communities? What could be done to strengthen these networks? Each table group will select a rapporteur to report back the key points during the final 15-20 minutes.

Table 5_1 Niall McCann, UNDP

Table 5_2 Chad Vickery, IFES

Table 5_3 Staffan Darnolf, IFES

Table 5_4 Betilde Munoz-Possian, OAS

Table 5_5 Marc Mayrand, Chief Elections Officer, Elections Canada

Table 5_6 Annette M. Fath-Lihic, International IDEA

Table 5_7 Martin Schaaper, UNESCO Institute for Statistics

Table 5_8 Nathaniel Heller, Global Integrity

2.30-04.00

Panel 6: Representative and direct democracy

Chair

Elisabeth Gidengil, McGill University

Papers

Campaigning in Direct Democracies: Initiative Petition Signing, Voter Turnout, and Acceptance, Katharina Jaronicki, University of Pennsylvania

The Conditioning Impact of Electoral and Party Systems on Electoral Volatility, Benjamin Ferland, McGill University and Ruth Dassonneville, University of Leuven

How to Survey about Turnout? Evidence from a Randomized Wording Experiment in Five Democracies, Alexandre Morin-Chassé, Université de Montréal; Damien Bol, Université de Montréal; Laura Stephenson, University of Western Ontario; and Simon Labbé St-Vincent, Université de Montréal

Discussant

Patrick Fournier, University of Montreal

2.30-04.00