CEL Research Affiliate Wins MPSA Award

Arjun Vishwanath, a Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) research affiliate and a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Political Science at Vanderbilt University, has been given the award for Best Paper in American Politics by the Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) for research presented at their 2023 Annual Conference. His article, “The Impact of Values on Issue Stances: Evidence from Panel Studies,” tests the role of political values as a driver of issue attitudes relative to two commonly posited sources of such attitudes – partisanship and symbolic ideology. Using six ANES and GSS panel surveys from 1992 to 2020 to test the role of traditionalism and egalitarianism on issue stances, he finds that not only do values predict future issue stances, they also produce value-congruent shifts in issue stances over time. Additionally, shifts in values over time drive subsequent attitude changes, and values shape attitudes on emergent policies, which he tests using the cases of welfare reform and transgender policies. Across all analyses, values have as large or larger effects than partisanship or ideology. He concludes that values are a vital construct for voters to make sense of policy issues.

Vishwanath and the other winning recipients will be given their respective awards at the 2024 MPSA Annual Conference Awards Ceremony and Annual Business Meeting on Saturday, April 6, 2024.

The CEL congratulates Vishwanath for receiving this honor and looks forward to his continued work on legislative effectiveness and in the broader field of political science.