Legislative Research – Center for Effective Lawmaking

2022-2023 Small Grant Awards Announced

2022-2023 Small Grant Awards Announced It is with great pleasure that we announce the Center for Effective Lawmaking’s 5th annual small grant awards and recipients. These grants are awarded each year to scholars and researchers who have consistently produced impressive contributions in their areas of study. With the allocation of these small grants, the Center seeks to support and promote the next generation of CEL research in hopes of expanding the overall knowledge associated with legislative effectiveness. Previous grant recipients have made remarkable strides in furthering this mission and we…

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October 11, 2022

Legislative Research

Call for 2022-2023 Small Grant Awards

Call for 2022-2023 Small Grant Awards Proposal deadline: September 20, 2022 Awards announced by: October 17, 2022 The 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…

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August 25, 2022

Congressional Town Halls and Legislative Effectiveness

Town hall meetings have long been a way for constituents to hear from their Representatives and Senators face-to-face, and to likewise raise their most pressing policy concerns. Is there a tradeoff between legislators spending their time and effort on town halls instead of focusing their energies on other important policymaking activities? New analysis from the Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) Faculty Affiliate Andrew J. Clarke and his co-author Daniel Markovits addresses this question by drawing on more than 23,000 town hall meetings over the past eight years.The authors find that the…

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August 2, 2022

Blog / Conference / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

The CEL’s 2022 Award for Best Publication on Effective Lawmaking

The CEL's 2022 Award for Best Publication on Effective Lawmaking This year, in coordination with our Fourth Annual Research Conference, the Center for Effective Lawmaking was pleased to announce the 2022 Award for Best Publication on Effective Lawmaking. The award was presented to Jesse M. Crosson, Alexander C. Furnas, Timothy Lapira, and Casey Burgat for their 2021 article in Legislative Studies Quarterly, titled "Partisan Competition and the Decline in Legislative Capacity among Congressional Offices.” In this paper, the authors take a deep dive into a new (and original) data set drawn from 236,000 quarterly payroll disbursements by…

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June 28, 2022

Blog / Events / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Research / Video

WATCH: A Discussion on the Gender Gap in Political Ambition

WATCH: A Discussion on the Gender Gap in Political Ambition On March 29, 2022, Center for Effective Lawmaking Co-Director Craig Volden interviewed CEL Faculty Affiliate and UVA Professor Jennifer Lawless about the new report she co-authored, "The Gender Gap and Political Ambition." The discussion centered around why, as stated in the report, "men continue to be much more interested than women in running for elective office," her own experiences as a candidate for Congress, and what we can learn to narrow the gap. Watch below to view the discussion and…

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April 7, 2022

Legislative Research

The Gender Gap in Political Ambition

The Gender Gap in Political Ambition In a new report just released, Center for Effective Lawmaking Faculty Affiliate Jennifer Lawless and her co-author, Richard Fox, find that the gender gap in political ambition endures. Despite the number of women serving in Congress doubling in the past twenty years, the views that potential women candidates hold about electoral politics and their own political aspirations don’t seem to have moved. This can be seen in the report assessing political ambition.According to Lawless, “Men continue to be much more interested than women in…

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March 16, 2022

Conference / Legislative Research

CEL’s Inaugural Award for Best Publication

CEL Award: Best Publication on Effective Lawmaking This year, in coordination with our Third Annual Research Conference, the Center for Effective Lawmaking was pleased to announce the inaugural award for Best Publication on Effective Lawmaking. The award was presented to Marco Battaglini, Valerio Leone Sciabolazza, and Eleonora Patacchini for their 2020 publication in the American Journal of Political Science, entitled “Effectiveness of Connected Legislators.” The work applies a network analysis to the study of effective lawmaking in the U.S. Congress. It demonstrates that those who are more centrally located in social…

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December 15, 2021

Inside the 3rd Annual Research Conference at the Center for Effective Lawmaking

Center for Effective Lawmaking Conference opens with remarks from Dept. of Political Sciences, Chair, Alan Wiseman in Alumni Hall.

Conference / Legislative Research

Inside the 3rd Annual Research Conference at the Center for Effective Lawmaking

Inside the 3rd Annual Research Conference at the Center for Effective Lawmaking The Center for Effective Lawmaking hosted its Third Annual Research Conference in early November 2021 at Vanderbilt University. After the pandemic forced the conference originally scheduled in June to be postponed due to safety considerations, there was a lot of energy and excitement. A group of scholars came together on the beautiful campus in downtown Nashville, TN to discuss research surrounding effective lawmaking, The conference featured five presentations of work with titles such as “The Primary Path for…

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December 7, 2021

Legislative Research

2021-2022 Small Grant Awards Announced

2021-2022 Small Grant Awards Announced It is with honor and excitement that we announce our 4th annual small grant awards and recipients. The body of academic research produced by previous cohorts of CEL grant recipients has been not only impressive but also critical to the field. We know that this year’s group of awardees will deliver the same high caliber scholarly work. The CEL’s funding and support for research grants is consistent with its commitment to advancing the generation, communication, and use of new knowledge about the effectiveness of individual…

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October 19, 2021

Events / Legislative Research

Capitol Conversations: Hoos on the Hill and the Life of a Staffer

Capitol Conversations: Hoos on the Hill and the Life of a Staffer At the Center for Effective Lawmaking we know that experienced legislative staff contribute to effective lawmaking. But who, exactly, are the people making the legislative agenda move? What is the daily life of a Hill staffer when it comes to policy?In a conversation moderated by Center for Effective Lawmaking Co-Director Professor Craig Volden, three Batten alums who currently work in Congress share their thoughts and stories. These three staffers explain what their jobs look like and how their…

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October 18, 2021

University of Virginia+Vanderbilt University

University of Virginia
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Vanderbilt University