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PIPE* Research: Abby K. Wood, USC, Gould School of Law

Campaign Finance Transparency Affects Legislators’ Election Outcomes and Behavior Do audits by executive agencies impact the behavior of those audited? Does revealing negative information about legislators affect electoral results and behavior? Institutions that encourage transparency, such as campaign finance disclosure, influence mass and elite behavior. We theorize that greater transparency Read more…

White Identity and the Emergence of the Republican Party in the Early-20th Century South

by Casey Fischl Jeffery A. Jenkins discussed his research paper, White Identity and the Emergence of the Republican Party in the Early-20th Century South, co-authored with Boris Heersink (Fordham University). The paper explores the relationship between white identity, the GOP, and the South. This topic is particularly timely considering Donald Trump’s victory Read more…

PIPE* Workshop: Ben Graham, USC

Ben Graham is an assistant professor at USC’s School of International Relations. Ben discussed his paper, Network Ties and the Political Strategies of Firms, co-written with Cesi Cruz. Abstract: Social ties are critical to firms’ ability to achieve influence over government policy, and it is widely accepted that better-connected firms achieve more influence. However, it Read more…

PIPE* Workshop: LaGina Gause, UCSD

LaGina Gause discussed her research paper, The Advantage of Disadvantage: Protests, Resources, and Legislative Behavior. It is well documented that low-resource groups are disadvantaged in the political process. But, when low-resource groups can overcome barriers to engage in collective action – participation involving multiple participants publicly expressing a grievance – it suggests that Read more…

PIPE Workshop: Kathleen Bawn, UCLA

Congressional primaries, like primary elections in general, are imagined to give voters, rather than party elites, the ability to choose which candidate wins the nomination. Indeed, we might expect primary election outcomes to reflect the preferences of the median primary voter, in roughly the way we expect general election outcomes to reflect the preferences of the overall district median.

We challenge this conventional wisdom.

PIPE* Workshop: John Matsusaka, USC Marshall School of Business

The Power of Economic Interests Under Direct versus Representative Democracy

The power of economic interest groups to influence policy outcomes is a common theme in economics and political science. Most theories posit that interest group power arises from the ability to influence elected or appointed government officials, that is, by exploiting the representative part of democracy. This paper examines an unstated implication of these theories, that special interest influence will be weaker under direct democracy, when there are no representatives involved.

Bedrosian Center