Where is the conference being held?

The conference is held in Chicago, USA.

What is the primary focus of this annual conference?

The conference serves as a major platform for political science research, covering a wide range of topics within the discipline.

84th Annual Midwest Political Science Association Conference

Name: 84th Annual Midwest Political Science Association Conference
Start: 2027-04-01T00:00:00Z
End: 2027-04-04T00:00:00Z
Location: Chicago

Apr 1–4, 2027Chicago, United StatesIn-person

Registration open

The 84th Annual Midwest Political Science Association Conference, hosted in Chicago, USA, serves as a significant forum for political science research. This event brings together scholars, practitioners, and students to present and discuss a wide array of topics within the discipline. Its long-standing tradition underscores its role in shaping political discourse and academic inquiry.

Committees & topics

Representation and Electoral Systems
Representation and Electoral Systems
Mass Media
Mass Media
Political Communication
Political Communication
Political Psychology
Political Psychology
Political Networks
Political Networks
Public Opinion
Public Opinion
American Public Opinion
American Public Opinion
Campaigns and Elections
Campaigns and Elections

Why it matters

This conference is a critical nexus for the advancement of political science, offering a platform for the dissemination of new research and the fostering of collaborative networks. The breadth of topics covered ensures that both established and emerging areas of political inquiry receive attention, from comparative politics to international relations and political theory. For those engaged in diplomatic work, understanding the academic underpinnings of political behavior and international systems is crucial. The conference provides insights into the latest methodologies and theoretical frameworks that inform policy analysis and strategic planning.

The discussions and presentations at this event can offer valuable perspectives on global political trends and domestic policy challenges. For instance, research presented on electoral systems or political economy in countries like USA, CAN, or MEX can shed light on broader regional or global patterns. Similarly, studies focusing on political behavior or public opinion in diverse contexts, such as BRA or IND, can provide comparative insights relevant to diplomatic engagement and public diplomacy. The conference's focus on rigorous academic inquiry helps to ground policy discussions in evidence-based analysis, moving beyond anecdotal observations to a more structured understanding of political phenomena.

How to prepare

To effectively engage with the conference content, participants should consider how the presented research aligns with current geopolitical challenges and diplomatic objectives. Utilizing frameworks such as "understanding motivations" and "mapping relationships" can help in discerning the practical implications of academic findings. For example, a paper on political polarization in USA might offer insights into domestic policy constraints that impact international relations, requiring diplomats to adjust their "engagement strategies."

Attendees should also be prepared to identify "hidden stakeholders" within various political contexts discussed, as academic research often uncovers actors and influences not immediately apparent in public discourse. Engaging with scholars from different subfields can broaden one's perspective, particularly when considering complex international issues that intersect with domestic politics, economic factors, and social dynamics. The conference provides an opportunity to apply "dynamic analysis" to evolving political landscapes, using academic insights to anticipate future trends and inform proactive diplomatic initiatives.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 5 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

United States

As the host nation, USA is a central focus for many political science discussions, particularly concerning domestic politics, electoral systems, and foreign policy implications.

Role in topic

Research often explores USA's role in global governance, its internal political dynamics, and the impact of its policies on international relations. The conference location in Chicago, USA, naturally draws significant attention to American political studies.

Canada

Canadian political science research frequently offers comparative insights, particularly in relation to its North American neighbor, USA, and its role in multilateral institutions.

Role in topic

Studies from CAN often contribute to discussions on federalism, multiculturalism, and trade relations, providing a valuable comparative lens for understanding political systems and international cooperation.

Mexico

Research from MEX often focuses on democratic transitions, economic development, and its complex relationship with USA, offering crucial perspectives on regional dynamics.

Role in topic

MEX's contributions highlight issues of migration, border security, and regional integration, providing important context for understanding political and economic interconnectedness in North America.

Brazil

Brazilian political science research contributes to understanding democratic consolidation, social movements, and the country's role in South American and global affairs.

Role in topic

Studies from BRA can illuminate challenges of governance, inequality, and environmental policy, offering insights into the political complexities of emerging economies and regional powers.

India

Indian political science research often examines the complexities of the world's largest democracy, including electoral politics, federalism, and foreign policy in a multipolar world.

Role in topic

Contributions from IND provide critical perspectives on issues of diversity, development, and strategic partnerships, enriching discussions on comparative politics and international relations.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Representation and Electoral Systems

Debates over how to translate votes into seats are among the oldest in political science, dating to 19th-century reform movements in Britain, Belgium, and the United States that produced the secret ballot, single-member districts, and early proportional representation (PR) systems. The post-1945 era entrenched a divide between majoritarian Westminster-style systems and continental PR, while the third wave of democratization since 1974 produced a wide menu of mixed-member, single transferable vote, and open-list designs in Germany, New Zealand, South Africa, and post-communist Europe. Comparative work by Arend Lijphart, Douglas Rae, and Gary Cox established that electoral rules shape party system size, minority representation, and accountability. Contemporary disputes center on the rise of populist majorities under disproportional rules, gerrymandering and redistricting litigation in the United States, the use of gender and ethnic quotas, and ranked-choice and approval voting experiments in subnational jurisdictions. Reform referenda in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, British Columbia, and most recently proposals in Chile and France have produced mixed results, with publics often resistant to changing familiar rules. Scholars increasingly examine how electoral systems interact with primaries, campaign finance, and digital media to shape representation. The panel will weigh evidence on descriptive versus substantive representation, the durability of Duverger's law under new conditions, and whether procedural reforms can meaningfully address polarization and democratic backsliding.

Key players

Mass Media

The study of mass media in political science traces from Lippmann and Lasswell's interwar work on propaganda through the Columbia and Michigan school findings on limited media effects, to agenda-setting and framing research by McCombs, Shaw, Iyengar, and Entman. The late 20th century saw consolidation of broadcast networks, the rise of cable news in the 1980s and 1990s, and the deregulation epitomized by the 1996 U.S. Telecommunications Act, which reshaped ownership patterns globally. State broadcasters such as the BBC, Deutsche Welle, NHK, and CCTV continued to anchor distinct media systems analyzed in Hallin and Mancini's comparative typology. Since the 2000s, the displacement of advertising revenue to platform companies, the collapse of local newspapers, and the rise of partisan and hyperpartisan outlets have transformed the field. Concerns about disinformation surged after the 2016 U.S. election and Brexit referendum, prompting EU action through the Digital Services Act and the strengthened Code of Practice on Disinformation. Authoritarian and hybrid regimes, notably Russia and China, have invested heavily in international broadcasting and information operations. The section convenes work on news consumption in fragmented information environments, journalist safety, platform-publisher relations, and the measurable effects of declining local journalism on civic participation and government accountability.

Key players

Political Communication

Political communication emerged as a distinct subfield through the work of Paul Lazarsfeld's Erie County studies, Kathleen Hall Jamieson on presidential rhetoric, and Doris Graber on information processing. The field has tracked successive technological shifts: televised debates beginning with Kennedy-Nixon in 1960, the cable and talk radio era of the 1980s and 1990s, the rise of campaign websites and email in the late 1990s, and the social media transformation since the 2008 Obama campaign. Each shift has prompted reassessment of persuasion, mobilization, and elite-mass linkages. Current research addresses microtargeted advertising, the role of influencers and short-form video, generative AI in campaign messaging, and cross-national diffusion of populist communication styles documented in work by Norris, Inglehart, and Mudde. The Cambridge Analytica scandal, evidence of foreign influence operations, and the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack have intensified attention to how communication strategies interact with platform affordances and democratic legitimacy. Methodologically, the field has moved toward large-scale text analysis, field experiments on persuasion, and panel studies of media diets. Debates persist over whether persuasion effects are minimal or substantial in modern campaigns, and how to study communication ethically when platforms restrict data access.

Key players

Political Psychology

Political psychology grew from postwar efforts to explain authoritarianism, notably Adorno and colleagues' The Authoritarian Personality (1950), and from Cold War-era work on belief systems by Converse, McGuire, and Sears. The cognitive revolution of the 1970s and 1980s introduced schema theory, motivated reasoning, and heuristics into political analysis, while the affective turn of the 1990s and 2000s, led by Marcus, Neuman, and MacKuen, foregrounded emotion in political judgment. Social identity theory derived from Tajfel and Turner became central to studies of partisanship, nationalism, and intergroup conflict. Current agendas focus on affective polarization documented by Iyengar and Mason, the psychology of populism and conspiracy belief, the role of disgust and threat in immigration attitudes, and the neuroscience of political ideology. The replication crisis in psychology has prompted greater attention to preregistration, larger samples, and cross-cultural validation, exposing weaknesses in some classic findings on priming and embodied cognition. Applied work addresses interventions to reduce dehumanization, correct misperceptions, and build democratic resilience, with field experiments in the United States, Israel, and post-conflict societies offering modest but measurable effects.

Key players

Political Networks

Network analysis entered political science through studies of legislative cosponsorship, interest group coalitions, and policy diffusion, building on sociological foundations laid by Granovetter, Wasserman, and Faust. The 2008 founding of the Political Networks Section of APSA institutionalized the subfield, and methods such as exponential random graph models (ERGMs), stochastic actor-oriented models, and latent space approaches became standard tools. Foundational substantive work by Fowler on Congress, Huckfeldt and Sprague on discussion networks, and Hafner-Burton and Montgomery on international organizations established core empirical applications. Contemporary research spans social media diffusion of political content, donor networks and dark money flows, transnational advocacy networks documented by Keck and Sikkink, and the structure of authoritarian elite coalitions. The availability of digital trace data has expanded what can be studied but raised concerns about ecological validity, platform bias, and the ethics of network reconstruction from leaked or scraped data. The panel will engage debates on causal inference in networks, the interaction of online and offline ties, and applications to climate negotiations, sanctions coalitions, and democratic backsliding.

Key players

Public Opinion

Modern public opinion research dates to the 1936 Literary Digest debacle and the rise of probability sampling pioneered by Gallup, Roper, and Crossley. The American Voter (Campbell et al., 1960), Converse's work on belief systems, and Zaller's receive-accept-sample model defined the field through the late 20th century. Comparative survey programs including the World Values Survey, Eurobarometer, Afrobarometer, Latinobarómetro, and the Asian Barometer have since enabled cross-national analysis of democratic values, trust, and policy preferences. The field faces a methodological inflection point: declining telephone response rates, the rise of online opt-in panels, and high-profile polling misses in 2015 (UK), 2016 (US, Brexit), and 2020 have prompted reassessment of weighting, mode effects, and likely-voter modeling. Substantive debates include whether democratic backsliding reflects shifting mass attitudes or elite-led processes, the stability of populist support, and how to measure sensitive attitudes on immigration and authoritarianism without social desirability bias. Emerging work integrates conjoint experiments, machine learning for measurement, and administrative data linkage, while raising ethical questions about microtargeting and the use of survey data by political operatives.

Key players

American Public Opinion

The study of American public opinion is anchored by the American National Election Studies (ANES), running since 1948, and the General Social Survey (GSS), running since 1972. Foundational findings on low information levels, the role of party identification, and the structure of ideological thinking, from Converse through Achen and Bartels, shape ongoing debates. The polarization literature, advanced by Abramowitz, Fiorina, Levendusky, and Mason, has produced competing accounts of whether the American mass public is genuinely sorted, polarized in policy terms, or primarily divided by affect and identity. Recent agendas center on the durability of Trump-era realignments, attitudes toward democratic norms and election integrity following 2020 and January 6, racial attitudes and the post-2020 backlash, abortion opinion after Dobbs v. Jackson (2022), and generational change on climate and LGBTQ issues. The collapse of telephone response rates and the 2016 and 2020 polling errors have driven adoption of multilevel regression with poststratification (MRP), address-based sampling, and probability-based online panels such as Pew's ATP and NORC's AmeriSpeak. The section will evaluate evidence on whether mass opinion constrains elite behavior, how misinformation persists despite corrections, and the implications of nationalized opinion for state and local politics.

Key players

Campaigns and Elections

Scholarship on campaigns and elections traces from V.O. Key's Southern Politics (1949) and Responsible Electorate (1966) through the Michigan school's funnel of causality to contemporary work by Vavreck, Sides, Hersh, and Enos on campaign effects, voter targeting, and electoral geography. The field long held that general election campaigns produce minimal persuasion effects amid predictable fundamentals, but recent field experiments and panel studies, including work by Kalla and Broockman, have refined this view, identifying conditions under which canvassing and advertising matter at the margin. Current issues include the post-Citizens United (2010) campaign finance environment, the nationalization of subnational races, the role of primaries in candidate selection and polarization, and contested election administration following 2020. Comparative work examines campaign professionalization, the spread of American-style consulting to Europe and Latin America, and the integrity challenges facing elections in India, Brazil, Mexico, and emerging democracies. Generative AI, deepfakes, and platform policies on political advertising are reshaping the 2024-2026 electoral cycle worldwide. The panel weighs evidence on mobilization versus persuasion, the effectiveness of voter ID and access policies, election administration under partisan pressure, and the global diffusion of contested election narratives.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for 84th Annual Midwest Political Science Association Conference.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

West Bengal Voter Deletion Crisis 2026

India's 131st Amendment Bill

West Bengal Voter Deletion Crisis

Delimitation Based on 2011 Census

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Engagement Strategies

Understanding Motivations

Mapping Relationships

Hidden Stakeholders

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Media & Press Relations

Persuasion & Influence

Cross-Cultural Communication

Advanced Negotiation

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

United States April 2027

By committee

Frequently asked questions

84th Annual Midwest Political Science Association Conference

Apr 1–4, 2027Chicago, United StatesIn-person

Registration open

Committees & topics

Representation and Electoral Systems
Representation and Electoral Systems
Mass Media
Mass Media
Political Communication
Political Communication
Political Psychology
Political Psychology
Political Networks
Political Networks
Public Opinion
Public Opinion
American Public Opinion
American Public Opinion
Campaigns and Elections
Campaigns and Elections

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 5 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

United States

As the host nation, USA is a central focus for many political science discussions, particularly concerning domestic politics, electoral systems, and foreign policy implications.

Role in topic

Canada

Canadian political science research frequently offers comparative insights, particularly in relation to its North American neighbor, USA, and its role in multilateral institutions.

Role in topic

Mexico

Research from MEX often focuses on democratic transitions, economic development, and its complex relationship with USA, offering crucial perspectives on regional dynamics.

Role in topic

MEX's contributions highlight issues of migration, border security, and regional integration, providing important context for understanding political and economic interconnectedness in North America.

Brazil

Brazilian political science research contributes to understanding democratic consolidation, social movements, and the country's role in South American and global affairs.

Role in topic

Studies from BRA can illuminate challenges of governance, inequality, and environmental policy, offering insights into the political complexities of emerging economies and regional powers.

India

Indian political science research often examines the complexities of the world's largest democracy, including electoral politics, federalism, and foreign policy in a multipolar world.

Role in topic

Contributions from IND provide critical perspectives on issues of diversity, development, and strategic partnerships, enriching discussions on comparative politics and international relations.