Montreal Workshop

Workshop: Citizens, Parties, and Electoral Contexts

When: One-day pre-IPSA Workshop: 10.00am to 7.00pm Friday 18th July 2014

Where: International Political Science Association, Montréal, Canada.

Organizers: Prof. Elisabeth Gidengil (McGill University) and Dr. Ferran Martinez i Coma (University of Sydney)

Co-sponsors: Making Electoral Democracy Work (http://electoraldemocracy.com); the Electoral Integrity Project (www.electoralintegrityproject.com); IPSA Research Section on Elections, Citizens and Parties (www.ipsa-ecp.com ).

The event was held the day before the 23rd International Political Science Association World Congress 19-24th July 2014, Palais des Congrès de Montréal, Montreal, Canada www.ipsa.org.

Download the program and papers:

Synopsis:

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 welcomes paper proposals 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?

Queries may be sent to electoralintegrity@gmail.com. There is no registration fee and participants will be offered refreshments and a buffet lunch. There will also be an evening cocktail reception, with a dinner reserved for paper-givers. A limited number of travel awards will be given to graduate students, women and colleagues from developing countries to offset the costs of travel.

About the sponsors:

Making Electoral Democracy Work is an international collaborative project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada under the direction of André Blais that brings together an exceptional team of economists, political scientists, and psychologists from Canada, Europe, and the United States to undertake the most ambitious study ever undertaken of the impact of electoral rules on the functioning of democracy.

The Electoral Integrity Project is an independent academic study with a research team based at the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. It is funded by many partner agencies, including the Australian Research Council. The Project focuses upon three main questions: When do elections meet international standards of electoral integrity? What happens when elections fail to do so? And what can be done to mitigate these problems?

The IPSA Elections, Citizens and Parties research section (IPSA-ECP) is an international professional network of scholars. The research section focuses on the analysis of elections and electoral systems, citizen activism, and political parties, within and across nation-states.

Citizens, Parties, and Electoral Contexts

Program

Where: Palais de Congress, Montréal, Canada, meeting rooms 518a, 518b, 519a and 519b.

When: Friday 18 July, 2014, 8.30-7.00pm, immediately prior to the 23^rd International Political Science Association General Congress, Montreal

Organizers: Dr Ferran Martinez i Coma and Professor Elisabeth Gidengil

Co-sponsoring organizations: The Making Electoral Democracy Work Project electoraldemocracy.com, the Electoral Integrity Project www.electoralintegrityproject.com, and IPSA Research Committee 23 Elections, Citizens and Parties http://www.ipsa-ecp.org/

Schedule

8.30-09.00 Arrival and registration

9.00-9.30 Welcome

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

Andre Blais/Elisabeth Gidengil and Pippa Norris/Ferran Martinez i Coma

09.30-11.00 Panel 1: MEDW

1_0 Chair:

1_1 Negative Campaigning in Multicandidate Contests, Indridi indridason, University of California at Riverside, and Matt Golder, Pennsylvania State University.

1_2 Campaigns and Cross-Level Partisanship, Laura Stephenson, University of Western Ontario, and Éric Bélanger, McGill University

1_3 The Impact of Electoral Systems on Personal Vote Strategies. A Field Experiment on German MPs, Damien Bol, University of Montreal, Thomas Gschwend, University of Mannheim, Thomas Zittel, Goethe University Frankfurt, Steffen Zittlau, University of Mannheim

1_4 Perceptions of Corruption: Does the Level of Government Make a Difference? André Blais, University of Montreal, and Elisabeth Gidengil, McGill University

1_0 Discussant:

09.30-11.00 Panel 2: Protests, Violence and Electoral Integrity

2_0 Chair:

2_1 When Do Political Parties Protest Election Results? Svitlana Chernykh, Oxford University

2_2 Bullets over Ballots: How Electoral Exclusion Sparks Political Violence and Chills Participation, Brian Klaas, Oxford University

2_3 Surviving Elections: Government-Sponsored Election Violence and Leader Tenure, Susan Hyde, Yale University

2_4 ‘A Mean and Treacherous Blow’: Understanding Election Violence Against Political Candidates, Richard Frank, University of Sydney

2_5 Gender and Electoral Integrity: Combating Violence against Women in Politics, Mona Lena Krook, Rutgers University

2_0 Discussant:

11.00-11.30 Coffee/tea

11.30-1.00 Panel 3. MEDW

3_0 Chair:

3_1 Compulsory Voting, Voter Turnout, and Income Inequality, John Carey, Dartmouth College

3_2 Elections as Poor Reflections of Preferences under Compulsory Voting,

Shane Singh, University of Georgia

3_3 High Turnout in the Low Countries: Partisan Effects of Turnout in Belgium and The Netherlands, Peter Miller, University of California at Irvine

3_4 Swing Voters and Motivated Cognitive Reasoning, Matthew Byrne, University of British Columbia

3_0 Discussant:

11.30-1.00 Panel 4. Perceptions of Electoral Integrity

4_0 Chair:

4_1 Election Observers and Citizens' Assessment of Election Integrity, George Ofusu, UCLA

4_2 Electoral rules, performance and perceptions of electoral integrity, Todd Donovan, Western Washington University

4_3 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)

4_4 Voter participation and attitudes toward electoral processes and electoral integrity: A comparative analysis of survey data from Ukraine and Indonesia.Staffan Darnolf, IFES, and Rakesh Sharma, IFES

4_5 Independent Electoral Management Bodies: A Cross-National Analysis, Andrew Klassen, Australian National University

4_6 Electoral Integrity in recent Elections in Southern Africa, Ferran Martinez i Coma University of Sydney, Rich Frank, University of Sydney, Jørgen Elklit, University of Aarhus and Andrew Reynolds, University of North Carolina

4_0 Discussant:

1.00-2.30 Panel 5: Breakout roundtables during buffet lunch

In this breakout session, led by a practitioner, 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

* To be confirmed

2.30--4.00 Panel 6: MEDW

6_0 Chair:

6_1 Campaigning in Direct Democracies: Initiative Petition Signing, Voter Turnout, and Acceptance, Katharina Jaronicki, University of Pennsylvania

6_2 The Educative Effects of Direct Democracy on Voter Turnout in Issue Ballot Votes. Evidence from Switzerland, 1970‐2012, Christian Marti, University of St.Gallen

6_3 The Conditioning Impact of Electoral and Party Systems on Electoral Volatility, Benjamin Ferland, McGill University

6_4 Electoral Rules, Leaders’ Tours and Brokerage Politics, Simon J. Kiss, Wilfrid Laurier University

6_0 Discussant:

2.30--4.00 Panel 7: Forensics, Campaign finance, Law

7_0 Chair:

7_1 Equity and Transparency in Campaign Financing: Implications for the Integrity of Elections, Betilde Munoz-Possian, OAS

7_2 Does the Decentralization of Electoral Manipulation Strengthen National Electoral Authoritarian Regimes? Evidence from Mexico, Allyson Benton, CIDE.

7_3 Exploring Electoral Integrity in an Established Democracy: Participant Observations of Counting Procedures at the 2013 German Bundestag Elections, Achim Goerres, University of Duisburg‐Essen.

7_4 Canadian Election Administration on Trial: The "Robocalls" Case and the Opitz Decision, Michael Pal, University of Toronto

7_5 The portfolio of electoral manipulation: The 2008 Recall Referendum in Bolivia, Francisco Cantu

7_0 Discussant:

2.30--4.00 Panel 8_0: Strengthening integrity institutions

8_0 Chair:

8_1 Evaluating Election Management Bodies, Pippa Norris, Harvard/Sydney Universities

8_2 Drawing the line: districting, redistricting, and electoral accountability,Chad Vickery, IFES

8_3 Electoral Integrity and the Chain of Accountability and Responsiveness: Evidence from Africa, Nicholas Kerr, University of Alabama

8_4 New Electoral Systems in Southern Africa: Trends and Challenges, Jørgen Elklit, Aarhus University

8_5 Election Management Bodies, Confidence and Voter Turnout, Holly Ann Garnett, McGill University

8_0 Discussant:

4.00-4.30 Coffee Break

4.30-6.00: Panel 9: Roundtable on the MEDW/EIP projects: research design, concepts, methods, and available datasets

9_0 Chair:

9_1 Andre Blais, University of Montreal

9_2 Pippa Norris, Universities of Harvard and Sydney

9_3 Elisabeth Gidengil, McGill University

9_4 Ferran Martinez i Coma, University of Sydney

6.05-7.00 Drinks reception and book launch celebrating:

Challenges of Electoral Integrity, (Eds) Pippa Norris, Richard Frank and Ferran Martiez i Coma, New York: Oxford University Press

Why Electoral Integrity Matters, Pippa Norris, New York: Cambridge University Press.

Comparing Democracies 4, Larry LeDuc, Richard Niemi and Pippa Norris. London: Sage Publications.

7.30-9.00 Dinner for invited participants and discussants