Beyond a Reliable Vote: Coordination and Information Problems in Congressional Nominations Research in collaboration with: Knox Brown, Angela Ocampo, Shawn Patterson, John Ray and John Zaller 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. Read more…

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 Read more…

Studying Subnational Policy Making This symposium, “Studying Subnational Policy Making,” brings together a number of scholars to examine important aspects of American political institutions and policy making below the national level. The papers are intended to be conceptual and lay out the opportunities and challenges that a subnational perspective holds Read more…

“Uncovering Discrimination in the Policing of Anti-Immigrant Hate Crime”  With an increase in ethnically motivated hate crime, we explore the issue of the rigor in which law enforcement agencies police potential hate crime activity. We conducted a large-scale field experiment on roughly 6,800 police departments throughout the United States to Read more…

LaGina Gause will discuss 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 Read more…

Ben Graham is an assistant professor at USC's School of International Relations. Ben will discuss his paper, Network Ties and the Political Strategies of Firms, co-written with Cesi Cruz. 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, Read more…

Nicolas Duquette is an assistant professor at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy.  He completed his PhD in economics from the University of Michigan in 2014. Duquette's research is in public finance and economic history, with particular interest in the historical development of taxation and spending policy and the Read more…

Violent encounters involving police and racial minorities are taking place in greater numbers in the United States. Some of the high-profile incidents (New York City (Eric Garner), Sanford, FL (Trayvon Martin), and Ferguson, MO (Michael Brown)) have generated strong public reaction. Protest movements, such as like “Black Lives Matter,” have Read more…