Legislative Staff and Representation in Congress: Do they understand their constituents' policy preferences? Previous research has indicated that political elites have, at best, a murky understanding of their constituents' policy…
Sidestepping Primary Reform: Political Action in Response to Institutional Change Many believe that primary elections distort representation in American legislatures because unrepresentative actors nominate extremist candidates. Advocates have reformed primaries…
Political Economy of Executive Politics In recent years, as polarization has gripped legislatures in America and inhibited lawmaking, executive branch officials have stepped into the policymaking breach. For example, a…
Monitoring bureaucratic performance in developing country governments A major challenge faced by developing country governments is how to successfully monitor bureaucratic performance, especially in environments with weak state capacity. In…
By the People: Electoral Reform, Public Administration, and the California 2018 Election Although Americans broadly agree that something is wrong with government, there is much less consensus about what ought…
Symposium at USC on Election Administration and Technology, 6 paper presentations in three panels with discussants. As the administration of elections has become a bigger and more complex political issue…
Choosing Racial Identity in the United States, 1880-1940
Emily Nix's paper documents that many black males experienced a change in racial classification to white in the United States, 1880 - 1940, while changes in racial classification were negligible for other races
"The Supply-Equity Trade-off: The Effect of Spatial Representation on the Local Housing Supply"
Michael Hankinson, assistant professor of Political Science at George Washington University, will discuss his research. A central concern of governance is how the costs and benefits of collective goods are distributed over the population. Our findings speak to a trade-off inherent to spatial representation: the supply of collective goods and the equitable distribution of the associated costs.
as to whether legislators bring this preference for reciprocity to Congress. Through an original survey experiment and observational studies of end-of-career behavior, Christian finds consistent evidence that legislators have an intrinsic preference for reciprocity. Moreover, legislators are aware that their colleagues have this preference, so it likely enters into their strategic calculations. This finding raises new questions for research in party discipline, partisan polarization, and interest group influence, and others.
"Political Legitimacy and the Institutional Foundations of Constitutional Government: The Case of England"
Presented by Jared Rubin, Professor, Chapman University.
Marc Weidenmier, Professor, Chapman University, will present his research. Please check back for more information.
Clayton Nall, Assistant Professor of Political Science at University of California Santa Barbara, will present his research. Please check back for more details.
Melissa Lee, Assistant Professor of Politics & International Affairs at Princeton University, will present preliminary research: From Pluribus to Unum? Statebuilding in 19th Century America.
https://bit.ly/2CJnHdh
The Local Political Economy Symposium at USC brings together nationally renowned scholars who study the most pressing political-economic issues at the local level — from compensation of public employees, to municipal bankruptcy, to criminal justice reform.