Center for Effective Lawmaking

Center for Effective Lawmaking

University of Virginia
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Vanderbilt University

Legislative Effectiveness, Progressive Ambition, and Electoral Success
Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / State Legislative Effectiveness Scores

Legislative Effectiveness, Progressive Ambition, and Electoral Success

Legislative Effectiveness, Progressive Ambition, and Electoral Success Monday, June 30, 2025In this Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper, Co-Directors Craig Volden (University of Virginia) and Alan Wiseman (Vanderbilt University), and Faculty Affiliates Danielle Thomsen (University of California-Irvine) and Sarah Treul (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) examine the question of whether effective state lawmakers are more likely than ineffective state lawmakers to be elected to Congress. The authors draw on the CEL's dataset of State Legislative Effectiveness Scores from 1993 to 2018 to examine the relationship between lawmaker effectiveness and the…

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June 30, 2025
Strategies of Control: Members of Congress and Policy Outcomes
Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

Strategies of Control: Members of Congress and Policy Outcomes

Strategies of Control: Members of Congress and Policy Outcomes Monday, June 23, 2025 Members of Congress enter their roles with various policies they hope to implement, but passing legislation is difficult. Lawmakers spend their tenure navigating complex procedures and institutional barriers created by the legislative process and the separation of powers. In this published paper in Legislative Studies Quarterly, Assistant Professor Erinn Lauterbach (Villanova University and Center for Effective Lawmaking Faculty Affiliate) and Associate Professor Melinda Ritchie (The Ohio State University) investigate how members of the House of Representatives leverage…

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June 23, 2025
Recognizing Innovation in Legislative Research: 2025 Best Publication on Effective Lawmaking Award
About the CEL / Center Affiliates / Conference / Events / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

Recognizing Innovation in Legislative Research: 2025 Best Publication on Effective Lawmaking Award

Max Goplerud (R) being presented with the CEL’s Best Publication award by co-director Craig Volden (L) (Photo by Anne Rayner). Recognizing Innovation in Legislative Research: 2025 Best Publication on Effective Lawmaking Award​ The Center for Effective Lawmaking is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2025 Award for Best Publication on Effective Lawmaking, which was presented at our Seventh Annual Research Conference held at Vanderbilt University on Monday, June 2, 2025. This year’s award honors Fang-Yi Chiou (Academia Sinica) and Max Goplerud (University of Texas–Austin) for their article, “Effective Lawmaking…

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June 11, 2025
Measuring Partisanship and Representation in Online Congressional Communication
Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

Measuring Partisanship and Representation in Online Congressional Communication

Measuring Partisanship and Representation in Online Congressional Communication Social media and the internet have created new ways for representatives to communicate. How have members of Congress responded to these opportunities? This is the subject of a Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper from Associate Professor (and CEL Faculty Affiliate) Michael Kistner, and Ph.D. candidates Robert Alvarez, Lucas Lothamer, and Maya Fitch (all of the University of Houston), as well as post-doctoral researcher Michael Heseltine of the University of Amsterdam and Associate Professor Elizabeth Simas of Texas A&M University. The…

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June 5, 2025
Getting what you pay for: Resource allocations and legislative success
Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

Getting what you pay for: Resource allocations and legislative success

Getting what you pay for: Resource allocations and legislative success Thursday, May 29, 2025Members of Congress run for office with a variety of goals they hope to achieve if elected. How members go about achieving these goals is constrained by numerous institutional factors. Yet there exist two areas in which members are afforded broad discretion: the allocation of their time and budget. In this published paper in Legislative Studies Quarterly, Emily Cottle Ommundsen, Assistant Professor at the University of Mississippi (and Center for Effective Lawmaking Faculty Affiliate), assesses the personal qualities…

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May 29, 2025
Pivots or Partisans? Proposal-Making Strategy and Status Quo Selection in Congress (Published Paper)
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Pivots or Partisans? Proposal-Making Strategy and Status Quo Selection in Congress (Published Paper)

Pivots or Partisans? Proposal-Making Strategy and Status Quo Selection in Congress (Published Paper) Thursday, May 15Lawmakers vary considerably in how effectively they advance their priorities through Congress. However, the actual proposal-writing strategies undergirding these differences have remained largely unexplored, due to measurement and methodological difficulties. These obstacles have included prohibitively small sample sizes, costly data requirements, and strong theoretical assumptions. In this published paper in Quarterly Journal of Political Science and based on a Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper, Associate Professor Jesse Crosson of Purdue University (and CEL…

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May 15, 2025
Gendered Perceptions of Legislative Influence (Published Paper)
Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research / State Legislatures

Gendered Perceptions of Legislative Influence (Published Paper)

Gendered Perceptions of Legislative Influence (Published Paper) Tuesday, May 13, 2025In this published paper in Perspectives on Politics based on a Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper, Faculty Affiliate Jaclyn Kaslovsky (Washington University in St. Louis), Tabitha Koch (Rice University), and Michael P. Olson (also of Washington University) 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. Yet, little previous scholarship has quantitatively examined whether legislative…

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May 12, 2025
Understanding the Policy Priorities of Republican Women in the US House of Representatives
Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

Understanding the Policy Priorities of Republican Women in the US House of Representatives

Understanding the Policy Priorities of Republican Women in the US House of Representatives Wednesday, March 19, 2025In this published paper in Politics & Gender, Professor Michele Swers of Georgetown University and Associate Professor (and CEL Faculty Affiliate) Danielle Thomsen of the University of California, Irvine take a deep dive into the sponsorship and cosponsorship activity of Republicans in the US House of Representatives from 1993–2014 to examine how ideology and gender influence the policy priorities of Republican legislators on issues associated with women, as well as on the party-owned issue…

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March 19, 2025
Niskanen Center: Congress at a Crossroads
Blog / Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis

Niskanen Center: Congress at a Crossroads

Niskanen Center: Congress at a Crossroads Monday, March 10The Niskanen Center has released a series of essays for their March issue of Hypertext about the culture of the legislative body and political changes being advanced by the Trump administration, all of which pose important discussions related to effective lawmaking. As stated by David Dagan, Niskanen’s Director of Editorial and Academic Affairs:“Congress faces this moment rife with contradictions. It is outwardly deeply partisan, but below the surface, still capable of a great deal of bipartisan legislation. Authority is highly centralized with party…

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March 10, 2025
Legislative Effectiveness in the American States (Published Paper)
Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research / State Legislative Effectiveness Scores / State Legislatures

Legislative Effectiveness in the American States (Published Paper)

Legislative Effectiveness in the American States (Published Paper) The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is excited to announce that our "Legislative Effectiveness in the American States" paper has been published by the American Political Science Review. This paper, written by CEL Co-Directors Craig Volden (UVA Frank Batten School) and Alan Wiseman (Vanderbilt University), and research consultant Peter Bucchianeri, serves as the basis of our State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) used to analyze state legislators across 97 legislative chambers over recent decades, based on the number of bills that they sponsor,…

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February 12, 2025

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