Center for Effective Lawmaking

Center for Effective Lawmaking

University of Virginia
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Vanderbilt University

Logrolling in Congress
Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

Logrolling in Congress

Logrolling in Congress Logrolling is a form of cooperation among politicians that plays a role in the legislative process, being a manifestation of the web of alliances that legislators make to pass bills for their constituencies. This paper from Professor Marco Battaglini (Cornell University), Assistant Professor Valerio Leone Sciabolazza (Sapienza University of Rome), and Professor Eleonora Patacchini (also Cornell) studies logrolling among members of the U.S. Congress by tracking roll-call votes within bills across five legislatures and politicians’ personal connections made via their alumni networks. The authors document a propensity…

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May 12, 2023
Are Workers Effective Lawmakers?
Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

Are Workers Effective Lawmakers?

Are Workers Effective Lawmakers? Throughout the country's history, some politicians and elites have argued that white-collar Americans are more qualified than working-class Americans to govern. To date, however, relatively little is known about the legislative effectiveness of working-class lawmakers. To address this knowledge gap, Jacob M. Lollis, a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia, creates a data set merging the occupational background of over 14,000 individual state legislators with their state legislative effectiveness score (SLES) as designed by the CEL. He finds that working-class…

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May 10, 2023
Center for Effective Lawmaking 2020-2021 Annual Report
About the CEL

Center for Effective Lawmaking 2020-2021 Annual Report

Center for Effective Lawmaking 2020-2021 Annual Report Welcome to this year's Center for Effective Lawmaking Annual Report.Like our past annual reports, this overview represents our means of spreading the word about the accomplishments, broad goals, and future plans for the Center.  During a year when so many people around the world felt distant from one another, we could not be more thankful for the close community of those who continue to work with us to advance the Center’s work. In our newest annual report you can:Read testimonials from our research assistants, post-doctoral…

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November 12, 2021
Discussing Legislative Effectiveness with Representative Joe Neguse
Conversations with Lawmakers / Video

Discussing Legislative Effectiveness with Representative Joe Neguse

Discussing Legislative Effectiveness with Representative Joe Neguse Representative Joe Neguse (D, CO-2) was identified by the Center for Effective Lawmaking as one of the top-ten most effective Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. House in the 116th Congress. His high Legislative Effectiveness Score (LES) also made him the most effective freshman lawmaker in the 116th Congress; and he was also identified as the most effective Democratic lawmaker on legislation that engaged with Public Lands policies in that Congress. Representative Neguse was elected to his first term in November 2018, becoming the…

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June 17, 2021
Are Bipartisan Lawmakers More Effective?
Legislative Research

Are Bipartisan Lawmakers More Effective?

Are Bipartisan Lawmakers More Effective? The 117th Congress wrestles with the Biden administration agenda and pressing policy challenges during an increasingly polarized time for American politics. The question looming large over all of these discussions is whether bipartisanship is dead.We find that, even in these politically polarized times, being a bipartisan lawmaker yields legislative payoffs.The Center for Effective Lawmaking has published new research drawing on data from the 93rd-114th Congresses (1973-2016). We explore whether attracting a larger proportion of cosponsors from the opposing party helps Senators and Representatives advance their…

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April 22, 2021
Reforming Congress, A Conversation with Sunwater Institute
Events / Legislative Research

Reforming Congress, A Conversation with Sunwater Institute

Reforming Congress, A Conversation with Sunwater Institute The Center for Effective Lawmaking’s Co-Directors, Professor Craig Volden and Professor Alan E. Wiseman, had the opportunity to engage in an in-depth conversation with Matthew Chervenak, Founder & President of the Sunwater Institute, about Congressional reform and what concerns and recommendations we can identify based on the research at the CEL. In a two-part video series, now available online, the dialogue touches on everything from what motivated the CEL Co-Directors to bring rigorous data analysis on lawmaking effectiveness to the field of political…

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February 17, 2021
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
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

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