Partisan polarization has steadily increased in recent years.  Democrats and Republicans in Congress have become two ideologically divided groups, with little ability to work together to solve the nation's problems.  And, citizens have increasingly used partisanship to guide their voting decisions, even as they diverge more and more on answers to Read more…

Presidents and the Congressional Black Caucus: Electoral Incentives and Budget Politics Brian Newman will discuss his research paper (co-authored with John Griffin of University of Colorado, Boulder).  What are the racial consequences of presidents’ incentives to move toward the median voter as elections approach?  If presidents move toward the center, they Read more…

"Why Legislators Don’t Compromise and What to Do About It" Legislative solutions to society’s pressing problems usually require compromise, but we find that around a quarter of state legislators and many elected city officials reject proposals that move policy in their preferred direction and make them better off. The legislators Read more…

"Revolving Doors" co-authored by Ryan Hubert, UC Berkeley Janna Rezaee's research focuses on the "revolving door" between government and the private sector as an institutional response to policy-development monopolies. The prevailing wisdom about the revolving door is that it provides leverage to business interests to shape policy outcomes in their Read more…

The Challenge of Measuring Political Polarization in the US over Time using Congressional Roll Call Votes Jeff Lewis is professor of Political Science, UCLA.  He is also the current president of the Society for Political Methodology. His research and teaching are in the areas of quantitative methodology and American politics. Read more…

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…