Blog – Page 2 – Center for Effective Lawmaking

Meet our new Advisory Board Member: Daniel Stid

Meet our new Advisory Board Member: Daniel Stid The Center for Effective Lawmaking is excited to welcome Daniel Stid to our Board of Advisors. Mr. Stid is the Executive Director of Lyceum Labs. He previously served as the founding director of the Hewlett Foundation’s U.S. Democracy Program. From 2013-22, he led $180 million in grantmaking to shore up U.S. democracy in a time of polarization. Earlier in his career, he was a partner at The Bridgespan Group, where he advised nonprofit, foundation, and government leaders; a management consultant with The…

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October 23, 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…

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October 22, 2024

Center Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

Outcome-Consequential Campaigning

Outcome-Consequential Campaigning In this Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper, Co-Directors Craig Volden (University of Virginia) and Alan Wiseman (Vanderbilt University) and Ph.D. Candidate Mackenzie Dobson (University of Virginia) examine whether congressional campaigns offer insights into likely policy outcomes championed by the candidates, including those resulting from collective policymaking. To address this inquiry, the co-authors utilized new scholarship to highlight the enhanced lawmaking effectiveness of bipartisan legislators. They found that, since the year 2000, more than a third of congressional freshmen used bipartisan language on the campaign trail. These bipartisan campaigners…

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October 21, 2024

Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

Enabling Compromise

Enabling Compromise In this Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper, Assistant Professor (and CEL Faculty Affiliate) Christian Fong and Ph.D. Student Nicolas Hernandez Florez of the University of Michigan examine how lawmakers are able to compromise on legislation despite the fear of backlash from their party’s primary voters. Contrary to common perception, two aspects of congressional politics – partisan agenda control and messaging bills – can help facilitate compromise instead of preventing it. Congressional leadership will put forward messaging bills known as cover bills - bills they know will…

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October 10, 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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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August 15, 2024

About the CEL / Center Affiliates / Legislative Research

Meet our Research Affiliate: Amy Meli

Meet our Research Affiliate: Amy Meli The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is excited to announce one of our newest research affiliates, Amy Meli. She is a postdoctoral research associate at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Her research centers around interest groups and the way they influence the political system. Her research projects include an examination of the way involvement in interest groups influences interest group member political efficacy and affective polarization, the relationship between interest groups and the political parties,…

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August 12, 2024