In modern democracy voting is the primary means by which citizens participate in politics. However, despite the enormous increase in the number of democracies around the world, sophisticated analysis of voting behavior has remained largely confined to American politics. We know far less about how citizens express their preferences and politicians shape outcomes in other institutional settings. This conference seeks to bridge this gap by bringing together political scientists from American and comparative politics to study split-ticket voting and divided government cross-nationally. Ticket splitting poses a number of intriguing substantive, methodological, and analytical questions regarding the connection between institutions and behavior. Moreover, its consequences raise several additional issues concerning governance, accountability, and stability in democracies around the world.

Conference Schedule and Papers
UPDATED ON MAY 26, 2006
(NOTE: Names appearing below in italics denote co-authors who are not participating in the conference.)

Friday, May 26

9:00am-9:30am
Breakfast

9:30am-10:00am
Welcome

10:00am-Noon
Panel 1: Split-Ticket Voting in Presidential Systems

Chair: Jorge Dominguez (Harvard)

Testing Sincere Versus Strategic Split Ticket Voting: Evidence from Split House-President Outcomes, 1900-1996
Bernard Grofman UC-Irvine) and Thomas Brunell (UT-Dallas)

Assessing Ticket Splitting in the United States
David Kimball (UMSL)

Dividing to Democratize? Ticket-Splitting in the Mexico 2000 Elections (new version, updated as of 5/25/06)
Gretchen Helmke (Rochester)

Ticket Splitting in Latin America
David Samuels (Minnesota) and Mark Jones (Rice)

Discussant: Sunshine Hillygus (Harvard)

Noon-1:00pm
Lunch

1:00pm-2:45pm
Panel 2: Split-Ticket Voting in Parliamentary Systems

Chair: Kenneth Shepsle (Harvard)

Forecasting the Number of Split-Ticket Voters in Parliamentary Systems
Thomas Gschwend (Mannheim) and Henk van der Kolk (Twente)

Instrumental and Expressive Voting in Mixed-Member Electoral Systems: Split-Ticket Voting in Italy
Kenneth Benoit (Trinity), Daniela Giannetti (Bologna), and Michael Laver (NYU)

Split-Ticket Voting in Times of Subnational Government Reorganization: Evidence from Denmark
Jørgen Elklit (Aarhus) and Ulrik Kjær (Southern Denmark)

Discussant: William Heller (Binghamton)

2:45pm-3:00pm
Break

3:00pm-5:00pm
Panel 3: Ticket Splitting in Mixed-Member Systems

Chair: Federico Ferrara (Harvard)

Split Voting in New Zealand
Jeff Karp (Texas Tech)

Voting for Candidates and Parties in the 2000 Japanese Elections
Barry Burden (Harvard)

Strategic Voting in Mixed-Member Systems: An Analysis of Split-Ticket Voting
Robert Moser (Texas) and Ethan Scheiner (UC-Davis)

Split-Ticket Voting in Russia (new version, updated as of 5/25/06)
Timothy Colton (Harvard) and Henry Hale (George Washington)

Co-discussants: Dean Lacy (OSU/Dartmouth) and Andrew Baker (Northeastern)

Saturday, May 27

9:00am-10:00am
Breakfast

10:00-Noon
Panel 4: Issues in Data Collection and Analysis
Chair: Barry Burden (Harvard)

Measuring Preferences for Divided Government in the U.S.
Dean Lacy (OSU/Dartmouth) and Philip Paolino (North Texas)

Making Ecological Inference for R X C Tables Easy: Standard Errors for EMax
Martin Elff (Mannheim), Thomas Gschwend (Mannheim), and Ronald Johnston (Bristol)

Split-Ticket Incentives under Alternative E-Voting Devices:
An Analysis of the E-Vote Pilot Conducted during the 2005 Argentine National Election
Ernesto Calvo (Houston), Marcelo Escolar (Buenos Aires), Julia Pomares (Buenos Aires)

Useful Information

Conference sessions will take place at Harvard's Center for Government and International Studies (CGIS) in the Belfer Case Study Room (Concourse Level, Room S-020), CGIS-South Building, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts (map).

Seating is limited. If you are not on the program and wish to attend all or part of the conference, please email Phil Jones at pjones (at) fas.harvard.edu in advance.
Breakfast and lunch will be provided for participants.
Other questions about the conference may also be sent to Barry Burden at burden (at) fas.harvard.edu.

Out-of-town participants will be staying at the Inn at Harvard. Located at 1201 Massachusetts Avenue, the Inn is just a short walk from CGIS (map).