Colin Achilles – Page 2 – Center for Effective Lawmaking

CEL at POLE Project Conference

CEL at POLE Project Conference Last week, Vanderbilt University Professor and Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) co-director Alan Wiseman was a presenter and panelist at the conference of the Patterns of Legislative Effectiveness (POLE) Project, which took place on October 28 and 29, 2024 at ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon in Lisbon, Portugal.POLE is a comparative study of legislators’ activities and performances in parliamentary systems. This research project sets as its main goal to unravel the complexities surrounding the behavior of MPs in parliamentary systems, shedding light on how…

Comments Off

November 8, 2024

About the CEL

Center for Effective Lawmaking 2024 Annual Report

Center for Effective Lawmaking 2024 Annual Report The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is celebrating an extremely successful year with the release of its annual report. Founded in 2017 as a joint venture between the University of Virginia’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and Vanderbilt University, the Center’s trusted methodology and analyses have been cited in hundreds of news articles across the U.S., and widely used by lawmakers and their staffs.The CEL’s top highlight from 2024 is the expansion of its mission to state-level lawmaking. The Center…

Comments Off

November 6, 2024

About the CEL / Board of Advisors

Meet our new Advisory Board Member: Danielle Thomsen

Meet our new Advisory Board Member: Danielle Thomsen The Center for Effective Lawmaking is excited to welcome Danielle Thomsen to our Board of Advisors.Thomsen is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine and a CEL Faculty Affiliate. Her research focuses on American politics, the U.S. Congress, and gender and politics. Her first book, Opting Out of Congress: Partisan Polarization and the Decline of Moderate Candidates, shows that ideological moderates are less likely to run for and remain in Congress than those at the extremes, further…

Comments Off

October 25, 2024

About the CEL / Board of Advisors

Meet our new Advisory Board Member: Brody Mullins

Meet our new Advisory Board Member: Brody Mullins The Center for Effective Lawmaking is excited to welcome Brody Mullins to our Board of Advisors.Mr. Mullins is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and author of The Wolves of K Street: The Secret History of How Big Money Took over Big Government, which details how corporate influence has grown in Washington since the 1970s. In nearly two decades as an investigative reporter for The Wall Street Journal, he wrote ground-breaking stories about the intersection of business and politics, exposing scandals that prompted new…

Comments Off

October 22, 2024

Conference / Events / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

CEL at APSA

CEL at APSA On Friday, September 6, the Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) held a panel at the annual American Political Science Association (APSA) conference in Philadelphia titled “Effective Lawmaking and Compromise in Congress and the States”. Chaired by CEL Co-director Craig Volden of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia, and with CEL Affiliate Sean Theriault of the University of Texas and CEL Co-director Alan Wiseman of Vanderbilt University acting as discussants, the panel featured political scientists who showcased their original research…

Comments Off

September 10, 2024

Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research / State Legislative Effectiveness Scores

Prior Experience and State Legislative Effectiveness

Prior Experience and State Legislative Effectiveness In this Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper, Associate Professor Eric Hansen of Loyola University Chicago and Professor Sarah Treul of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (and CEL Faculty Affiliate) examine how the prior experiences of lawmakers affect their performance in office. Elected representatives who have professional backgrounds in fields closely related to lawmaking—specifically law, government, or politics—or who held prior office seem to have an advantage in winning elections, but it is unclear that such experience makes them better…

Comments Off

September 9, 2024

Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research / State Legislative Effectiveness Scores

Gendered Perceptions of Legislative Influence

Gendered Perceptions of Legislative Influence In this Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper, Faculty Affiliate Jaclyn Kaslovsky (Washington University in St. Louis), Tabitha Koch (Rice University), and Michael P. Olson (Washington University in St. Louis) examine whether legislative and electoral accomplishments translate into perceived influence differently for women and men. Women legislators often report that they must work harder than men to achieve the same outcomes and recognition. Existing research supports this argument in their interactions with voters, yet little previous scholarship has examined whether this expectations gap also…

Comments Off

August 20, 2024

About the CEL / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

Call for 2024-2025 Small Grant Awards

Call for 2024-2025 Small Grant Awards Proposal deadline: September 30, 2024Awards announced by: November 15, 2024The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) welcomes applications for grants to fund research consistent with the mission of the Center. The Center advances the generation, communication, and use of new knowledge about the effectiveness of individual lawmakers and U.S. legislative institutions. See our website (www.thelawmakers.org) for more on the CEL.The research receiving support must focus on effective lawmaking and must be designed to make an original scholarly contribution, generating and communicating new knowledge. We are…

Comments Off

August 16, 2024

Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Research

Meet our Research Affiliate: Connor Phillips

Meet our Research Affiliate: Connor Halloran Phillips The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is excited to announce one of our newest research affiliates, Connor Halloran Phillips. He is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Political Science and Center for Effective Lawmaking at Vanderbilt University. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University’s Center for the Study of Democratic Politics. His research examines interest groups, parties, legislatures, and elections in the US with a focus on how federalism shapes phenomena such as partisan polarization and voter participation. In his…

Comments Off

August 15, 2024

(C)H.Dodge,L.Lamsa

Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Effectiveness Scores / Legislative Research

Effective Lawmaking Behind the Scenes

Effective Lawmaking Behind the Scenes In this Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper, Co-Directors Craig Volden (University of Virginia) and Alan Wiseman (Vanderbilt University), and Faculty Affiliates Mary Kroeger (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill), Erinn Lauterbach (Villanova University), and Kelsey Shoub (University of Massachusetts-Amherst) demonstrate how behind-the-scenes lawmaking has become much more common in the U.S. Congress in recent years, with numerous bills embedded in must-pass legislation. Building on previous political science research, they offer a methodology to identify all bills that are substantially embedded in all laws in both…

Comments Off

July 16, 2024