Center for Effective Lawmaking

Center for Effective Lawmaking

University of Virginia
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Vanderbilt University

Watch: The History of the Legislative Effectiveness Scores
About the CEL / Legislative Research / Video

Watch: The History of the Legislative Effectiveness Scores

Watch: The History of the Legislative Effectiveness Scores During a recent Expert Chat conversation, hosted by the Batten School of Leadership & Public Policy, Professors Alan E. Wiseman and Craig Volden gave rare insight into how the Center for Effective Lawmaking was first formed, with roots from when the Co-Directors were both faculty at Ohio State University.At that time, Volden and Wiseman utilized their skill sets to create a meaningful metric for effectiveness in Congress by assessing which members successfully pass substantive and significant pieces of legislation regardless of political…

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August 24, 2020
Meet Our New Post-Doctoral Affiliate: Erinn Lauterbach
About the CEL / Faculty Affiliates

Meet Our New Post-Doctoral Affiliate: Erinn Lauterbach

Meet Our New Post-Doctoral Affiliate: Erinn Lauterbach The Center for Effective Lawmaking is excited to introduce our newest post-doctoral fellow, Erinn Lauterbach. Erinn received her bachelor’s in political science and psychology from Central College, and her master’s and PhD from the University of California, Riverside. Hailing from Iowa, Erinn has always been a “political junkie.” Her interest in political science was solidified when she had the opportunity to study abroad in London, serving as an intern for a member of the British Parliament. Erinn was fascinated by the differences in…

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August 14, 2020
Experienced Legislative Staff Crucial to Making a Difference on the Hill
Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

Experienced Legislative Staff Crucial to Making a Difference on the Hill

Experienced Legislative Staff Crucial to Making a Difference on the Hill A legislative staff member’s role is critical to maintaining and sustaining the operations of congressional offices. And the CEL has released a study revealing that the more experience a congressional staff member has, the better equipped they are to make the lawmaker they work for more effective.Assessing data from 1974 to 2013, the CEL discovered that experienced congressional staff have a significant impact on a legislator’s performance in Congress. Experienced staff help members advance legislative proposals of greater significance…

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August 11, 2020
Women’s Issues and Their Fates in Congress
Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

Women’s Issues and Their Fates in Congress

Women's Issues and Their Fates in Congress It is no surprise to voters that bills addressing the classically considered “women’s issues” are more likely to be introduced by female members of Congress. Yet, bills on such issues are half as likely as other bills to be passed into law. Beyond that fact, CEL research has revealed a further surprising and disheartening finding. The likelihood of passage of “women’s issues” legislation drops in half yet again if the women’s issue bills are sponsored by women themselves. If men sponsor the legislation,…

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August 4, 2020
Meet our Faculty Affiliate: Danielle Thomsen
Faculty Affiliates

Meet our Faculty Affiliate: Danielle Thomsen

Meet our Faculty Affiliate: Danielle Thomsen Professor Danielle Thomsen is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the  University of California, Irvine. Her research and writings have been an integral part of progressing the CEL’s portfolio. Previously an Assistant Professor at Syracuse University, she also worked as a research scholar at the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University during the 2018-2019 academic year. Her research focuses on American politics, the U.S. Congress, and gender and politics. She is the author of Opting Out of Congress: Partisan…

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July 24, 2020
Elite Education and Legislative Behavior in the U.S. Congress
Legislative Research

Elite Education and Legislative Behavior in the U.S. Congress

Elite Education and Legislative Behavior in the U.S. Congress The Center for Effective Lawmaking announces new research about the relationship between elite education on legislative behavior, particularly effective lawmaking, in the U.S. Congress.About a third of the U.S. Congress is comprised of legislators who attended elite colleges, universities, and law schools. We studied how legislative behaviors within this group have differed from those of other legislators between 1973 and 2014. Elite education is defined as having graduated from the most highly ranked colleges and universities, such as Stanford or Harvard, and…

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June 15, 2020
Watch: The Role of Experienced Congressional Staff
Legislative Research / Video

Watch: The Role of Experienced Congressional Staff

Watch: The Role of Experienced Congressional Staff in Effective Lawmaking On June 5, 2020, the Center for Effective Lawmaking hosted a discussion about the role and importance of experienced legislative staff on effective lawmaking. Mike Henry, Chief of Staff for Senator Tim Kaine, joined Center for Effective Lawmaking Co-Director, Professor Craig Volden, for a virtual conversation regarding life as a professional Congressional staffer.They spoke candidly about how experienced legislative staff can greatly impact a lawmaker’s ability to be effective. Members of Congress seek to allocate their scarce staff resources carefully,…

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June 12, 2020
Meet our Faculty Affiliate: Bruce Oppenheimer
Faculty Affiliates

Meet our Faculty Affiliate: Bruce Oppenheimer

Meet our Faculty Affiliate: Bruce Oppenheimer Center for Effective Lawmaking faculty affiliate Bruce I. Oppenheimer is a professor emeritus of political science at Vanderbilt University. As an accomplished researcher and award-winning author, his work is an asset to the CEL portfolio.Oppenheimer’s research primarily focuses on Congress, American political institutions, and energy policy. Professor Oppenheimer has been both an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow and a Brookings Institution Fellow and Guest Scholar. Among other publications, he is the author of Oil and the Congressional Process: The Limits of Symbolic Politics…

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June 1, 2020
Introducing our Summer Intern Team 2020
About the CEL

Introducing our Summer Intern Team 2020

Meet Our Summer 2020 Intern Team With the end of the academic year, we watch as our 2019-2020 student intern team of stellar University of Virginia students go on to new ventures . However, at the Center for Effective Lawmaking, we are excited to announce our new summer team of Batten students!Please join us in welcoming the following interns to the CEL team. We look forward to their projects and hard work as they bring their unique talents to the Center's vision.Sherese Bonner is a University Achievement Award Scholar majoring…

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May 20, 2020
Watch: Primaries and Primary Reform
Events / Legislative Anaylsis

Watch: Primaries and Primary Reform

Watch: Primaries and Primary Reform On May 14, 2020, we partnered with the Miller Center to bring together a panel of experts to discuss primaries and primary reform. Our faculty affiliate Jennifer Lawless moderated as Chris Lu, Kyle Kondik and our Co-Director Craig Volden spent an hour answering questions such as: Is the U.S. presidential primary system really the best way to choose a nominee? Are we too reliant on campaign cash and media coverage? What are the benefits and costs of ranked choice voting? What interests these experts the…

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May 18, 2020

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