Ph.D. in Political Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Sol Price School of Public Policy
Ralph and Goldy Lewis Hall, 201A
Los Angeles, CA 90089
Jeffery A. Jenkins is Provost Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and Law, Judith & John Bedrosian Chair of Governance and the Public Enterprise, Director of the Bedrosian Center, and Director of the Political Institutions and Political Economy (PIPE) Collaborative. He previously held tenure-stream positions at the University of Virginia, Northwestern University, and Michigan State University.
His research interests include American Political Institutions and Development (with a special emphasis on Congress and political parties), lawmaking, separation-of-powers, and political economy. Much of his work takes a positive political theory (or rational choice) approach, and examines how political actors pursue their interests while being constrained by formal and informal institutional arrangements. His current work involves papers on the ideological content of federal lawmaking in the post-war era and book projects on how civil rights policy has been dealt with in Congress over time and how the Republican Party evolved in the South after the Civil War.
Dr. Jenkins holds a PhD in political science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MS in mathematical methods for the social sciences from Northwestern University. He has been a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University and Michigan State University.
Jenkins been Editor in Chief of The Journal of Politics since January 2015.
He is also the founding Editor in Chief of the Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy, which began publishing in 2020, and Historical Political Economy, which begins publishing in 2021.
He is Editor in Chief of Broadstreet, a blog that focuses on historical political economy, and I host a podcast called P.S. You’re Interesting, where I talk to political scientists about their research.
Gailmard, S., & Jenkins, J. (2018). Distributive politics and congressional voting: public lands reform in the Jacksonian era. Public Choice, 175(3), 259–275. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-018-0518-4
Gray, T., & Jenkins, J. (2019). Pivotal Politics and the ideological content of Landmark Laws. Journal of Public Policy, 39(1), 115–142. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0143814X1700023X
Clarke, A., & Jenkins, J. (2017). Who are President Trump’s Allies in the House of Representatives? The Forum, 15(3), 415–429. https://doi.org/10.1515/for-2017-0029
Jenkins, J., & Stewart, C. (2018). The Deinstitutionalization (?) of the House of Representatives: Reflections on Nelson Polsby’s “The Institutionalization of the U.S. House of Representatives” at Fifty, 32(2), 166–187. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0898588X18000093
Lowande, K. S., Jenkins, J. A., & Clarke, A. J., Presidential Particularism and U.S. Trade Policy; Political Science Research and Methods; Forthcoming.
Gray, T. R., & Jenkins, J. A., Unpacking Pivotal Politics: Exploring the Differential Effects of the Filibuster and Veto Pivots; Public Choice; Forthcoming.
Clarke, A. J., Jenkins, J. A., & Monroe, N. W., From Rolls to Disappointments: Examining the Other Source of Majority Party Failure in Congress; Political Research Quarterly, 70: 82-97; 2017.
Heersink, B., Peterson, B. D., & Jenkins, J. A., Disasters and Elections: Estimating the Net Effect of Damage and Relief in Historical Perspective; Political Analysis, 25: 260-68; 2017.
Clarke, A. J., Jenkins, J. A., & Lowande, K. S., Tariff Politics and Congressional Elections: Exploring the Cannon Thesis; Journal of Theoretical Politics, 29: 382-414; 2017.
Jenkins, J. A., & Monroe, N. W., On Measuring Legislative Agenda-Setting Power; American Journal of Political Science, 60: 158-74. 2014 Congressional Quarterly Press Award for the best paper on legislative studies presented at the 2013 American Political Science Association meeting; 2016.
Finocchiaro, C. J., & Jenkins, J. A., Distributive Politics, the Electoral Connection, and the Antebellum US Congress: The Case of Military Service Pensions; Journal of Theoretical Politics, 28: 192-224; 2016.
Heersink, B., & Jenkins, J. A., Southern Delegates and Republican National Convention Politics, 1880-1928; Studies in American Political Development, 29: 68-88; 2015.
Jenkins, J. A., & Monroe, N. W., Negative Agenda Control and the Conservative Coalition in the U.S. House; Journal of Politics, 76: 1116-27; 2014.
Jenkins, J. A., & Stewart, III, C., Fighting for the Speakership: The House and the Rise of Party Government; Princeton University Press. Series: Princeton Studies in American Politics: Historical, Comparative, and International Perspectives. Series Editors: Ira Katznelson, Martin Shefter, and Theda Skocpol. Named as one of Choice’s Editors’ Picks for 2013; 2013.
Jenkins, J. A., & Peck, J., Building toward Major Policy Change: Congressional Action on Civil Rights, 1941-1950; Law and History Review, 31: 139-98; 2013.
Jenkins, J. A., & Monroe, N. W., Buying Negative Agenda Control in the U.S. House; American Journal of Political Science, 56: 897-912; 2012.