James Rydberg
Curriculum Vita
December 2009
Department of
Political Science
341 Schaeffer Hall
The
Phone: 319-335-2457
http://www.jamesrydberg.org/
email: james-rydberg@uiowa.edu
Education:
2010 Ph.D. Political Science,
2006 M.A., Political Science,
2004 B.A., Political Science,
Positions
Held:
2010: Obermann Graduate Fellow -
Funding
and training for the development of an applied survey research course
2007-2009:
Research Assistant for the
Co-Directed
by Dave Redlawsk & Caroline Tolbert
Conducted
nine national and state polls. Managed database, conducted preliminary analyses for the press,
supervised training, and managed calling.
2009:
Research Assistant for Fred Boehmke (Summer)
2005-2006: Research Assistant for Douglas Dion
2002-2004: Founding Fellow –
Organized
disparate regional groups for a conference on policy advocacy. Assisted advocacy groups with advocacy
skills such as grant writing, press conferences, talking points, membership maintenance and media relations. Director: Steve
Woods. http://www.wwucascaid.org/
Teaching
Experience:
2009: Teaching Assistant for Intro to
Politics (Douglas Dion, Fall)
2009:
Teaching Assistant for State
Politics and Policy (Caroline Tolbert, Spring)
2006-2007: Teaching Assistant for Intro to American
Politics (Peverill Squire)
2004: Teaching Assistant for Public Policy
(Sara Weir, Spring)
2004: Teach-In Lecturer
Researched,
prepared, and delivered university-wide lecture on capital punishment. Lecture
focused on my work regarding state sovereignty and the Second Optional Protocol
to the International Covenant to Civil and Political Rights.
2004: Panelist: “Five Unresolved Treaties:
Responses and Policy Analysis” as a part of
‘Scholars Week’ at
2003: Forensics Institute Leader and
Instructor
Three
week summer camp for intensive training in policy debate for HS students
Directed
small group research and skill building, lectured advanced high school
students, prepared, managed and organized over five
thousand pages of evidence on federal ocean policy.
Grants, Scholarships, and Awards:
Prestage-Cook Award, travel grant for Southern Political Science Association Conference - 2010
Obermann Graduate Fellowship, Obermann Graduate Institute on Engagement and the Community - 2010
Best Graduate Student Poster – State Politics & Policy Annual Conference, 2009
Loewenberg
Fund – research grant, 2009
Departmental Nomination –
Department
of Political Science Travel Grant, University of Iowa, 2005-2009
National
Science Foundation, EITM scholarship, 2008
Graduate
Assistantship, University of Iowa, 2006-2009
Graduate
Student Senate, International Travel Grant, 2006
Research
Scholar Award, University of Iowa, 2005-2006
Working Papers:
“Measuring Representation: Direct
Democracy and Policy Responsiveness in the American States” (under review)
“Representation in the Presence
of the Initiative”
“Privatizing War: Private Military
Companies and Democratic Control”
“Explaining the Bork Effect: Senate Confirmation Votes
& Electoral Politics.”
“State Electoral Institutions and Senatorial Shirking: 1961-2004”
“Democratic Peace and Diversionary Theory: The Electoral Connection”
Dissertation:
Representation in the American States
The dissertation examines the effect of institutional design on the quality of representation provided by elected officials to their constituents. I use the American states as a testing ground for the effect of the initiative process. There are two primary contributions of this dissertation. First, I develop a formal model of how voters will select candidates given that voters can alter public policy through a mechanism that bypasses those elected officials. I find that voters are less concerned about the policy aspects of candidates in direct democracy states, but that these voters are more sensitive to their personal characteristics such as gender, attractiveness, and honesty. This is an institutional cause of voters substituting from substantive representation toward descriptive & symbolic representation in their voting behavior.
Second,
I generate the estimation procedure to evaluate representation from the formal
model. This procedure simultaneously predicts the ideally representative public
policy as well as factors that affect the variance around that estimate. It is
through this variance around the ideal policy that the quality of representation
is measured. This method is uniquely able to directly compare the effects of
initiative process with other institutions, such as state legislative
professionalism and term limits, as well as incorporate control variables.
Final empirical evaluation confirms that the initiative leads to public policy
that is more representative of public opinion.
Conference Presentations:
2010 “Institutionally Induced Candidate Selection in the American States” Southern Political Science Association (planned)
“Comparing the Role of Economic
Voting at the National and Local Levels” (with Frederick Boehmke
and Michael Lewis-Beck)
"Selecting-Out
Corruption: Institutionally Induced Candidate Selection in the American
States" Midwest Political Science Association Conference (planned)
2009 “Measuring Representation” (Poster). Society for Political Methodology Annual Summer Meeting (July)
“Candidate Selection and Legislative Representation in the Presence of the Initiative” (Poster). State Politics and Policy Annual Conference (May).
Winner - Best Graduate Student Poster Award
“Legislative Responsiveness and the
Initiative: A Model Incorporating Voting Behavior in the Presence of Direct
Democracy.”
2008 “Institutions Constraining Shirking: A Heteroskedastic Approach.”
2007 “Resource Allocation: Mercenaries or the
Army?” (with Gail Buttorff)
“Explaining the
Bork Effect: Senate Confirmation Votes & Electoral Politics.” (with Robert J. McGrath)
2006 “Borrowing Executive Legitimacy: Presidents
and Ex-Presidents in the Modern Era.” (with Whitney
Garrison)
“Privatizing
War: Private Military Companies and Democratic Control” (with Gail Buttorff) presented at the Oceanic Conference on
International Studies,
Professional Memberships:
American Political Science
Association
Sections: Representation and Electoral Systems, Political
Methodology, State Politics and Policy
Methodological Skills:
Maximum likelihood programming & estimation, simulation,
ideal point estimation, data visualization, literate programming
Software: Stata, R, Calc, SPSS, LaTeX, SAS,
html, winbugs, WinCati(Sawtooth)
References:
Frederick J. Boehmke (dissertation chair)
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
341 Schaeffer Hall
319-335-2342
frederick-boehmke@uiowa.edu
Douglas Dion
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
341 Schaeffer Hall
319-335-2538
douglas-dion@uiowa.edu
Michael Lewis-Beck
F. Wendell Miller Professor of Political Science
Department of Political Science
341 Schaeffer Hall
319-335-2350
michael-lewis-beck@uiowa.edu
Caroline Tolbert
Professor
Department of Political Science
341 Schaeffer Hall
319-335-2360
caroline-tolbert@uiowa.edu
Professor
Department of Political Science
2225 Watkins Hall
951-827-5595
shaun.bowler@ucr.edu