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Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions

Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions
  2. Media
  3. Archived Op-Eds & Blog Posts-2013

Archived Op-Eds & Blog Posts-2013

  • 11/14/13 http://bit.ly/VoalIw - Congressional oversight of government agency management may reduce the influence of Congress over policymaking in the federal bureaucracy, a new study shows. Using a survey of more than 2,000 government executives, CSDI Co-Director, Joshua Clinton found that the more Congressional committees that are involved in agency oversight, the more empowered the president is compared to Congress.
  • 11/12/13   http://wapo.st/VoDvY1  Genopolitics, a field of research that explores the genetic basis of political attitudes and behavior may offer paltry insights for behaviorists and political scientists, says CSDI Co-Director, Larry Bartels, whose blog post is featured in Washington Post - The Monkey Cage.
  • 11/04/13 http://wapo.st/1pkr0to Co-Director, Larry Bartels has a new blog post in Washington Post-The Monkey Cage today about research on politicians' accountability - or lack thereof - to voters.
  • 10/21/13  http://bit.ly/1qwBUcN  A recent blog post at the LSE American Politics and Policy blog by CSDI Co-Director Alan E. Wiseman, Craig Volden (University of Virginia), and Dana E. Wittmer (Colorado College) comments on the role of female lawmakers in the recent negotiations to end the government shutdown. 
  • 10/08/13  http://nyti.ms/1qJrh8N  The Politics of Wealthy Americans (Russell Sage Foundation, 2013), by Benjamin Page (Northwestern University), CSDI Co-Director Larry M. Bartels, and Jason Seawright, (Northwestern University), was cited in the New York Times today. In Politicians for Sale the NYT editorial board suggests that the U.S. Supreme Court should uphold individual campaign contribution limits, in their consideration of McCutcheon V Federal Election Commission, which was argued before the Court today. To strike down individual campaign contribution limits would further skew the balance between wealthy and non-wealthy Americans in elections. The recently-published study by Page, Bartels, and Seawright demonstrated that the policy preferences of "really wealthy Americans" differ significantly from those of ordinary (and less-wealthy) Americans.
  • 10/07/13 http://wapo.st/1eEOLmW - The definitive account of what really happened and what really mattered in the campaign. (washingtonpost.com/blog/monkeycage) By John Sides. Vanderbilt political scientist (and Monkey Cage contributor) Larry Bartels; 'Conventional campaign books portray a fantasy world shaped by brilliant strategists and dramatic events. Sides and Vavreck have invented a new genre–in-the-moment electoral analysis grounded in first-rate political science."
  • 09/30/13 http://wapo.st/H6XZgu - Americans are more conservative than they have been in decades. (washingtonpost.com/blog/monkeycage) By Larry Bartels - "The latest update of Stimson's policy mood series suggests that the American public in 2012 was more conservative than at any point since 1952. (Actually, since mood in each year is estimated with some error, it seems safer to say that the current level of conservatism roughly equals the previous highs recorded in 1980 and 1952.) While the slight increase in conservatism from 2011 to 2012 is too small to be significant, it continues a marked trend that began as soon as Barack Obama moved into the White House."
  • 09/20/13 http://bit.ly/1b1ELGu - On average, women in Congress are more effective lawmakers than men. (blogs.lse.ac.uk) By Craig Volden, Alan E. Wiseman, and Dana E. Wittmer. "The growing representation of women in the House and Senate has spurred new questions about differences between male and female legislators."
  • 08/22/13 http://bit.ly/150t09O - (Not Much) Political Polarization in Europe. (www.themonkeycage.org) By Larry Bartels "Always eager to be of service, I sat right down and wrote an APSA paper on polarization in 21 European countries over the past two decades."
  • 08/14/13 http://wapo.st/19i5B8V - Larry Bartels confuses Washington and the economy. (washingtonpost.com/wonkblog) By Ezra Klein - Now Vanderbilt's Larry Bartels has weighed in — which should be exciting! Bartels is one of my favorite political scientists for his relentless efforts to cut through emotional debates with cold, hard data. His essay on the irrationality of voters, for instance, is a minor classic.
  • 06/03/13 http://wapo.st/16EsXYr - If you pay them money, partisans will tell you the truth. (www.washingtonpost/blogs/wonkblog) By Dylan Matthews - Larry Bartels found that, in 1988, Democrats were much less likely than Republicans to correctly answer questions about whether inflation went down under President Ronald Reagan (it did) and whether unemployment also fell (it did).
  • 05/11/13 http://bit.ly/10jehsf- White Vote by Income, 2012 (monkeycage.org) By Larry Bartels - "I don't know about every state; but here is the picture for the Non-South and South, based on survey data from the 2012 Cooperative Campaign Analysis Project."
  • 05/07/13 http://wapo.st/140TKZH - A new study says politicians don't favor the rich. That's debatable. (washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog) By Dylan Matthews - A strand of research has emerged since Bartels' findings that casts doubt on conclusions like these. Columbia's Robert Erikson and the University of Copenhagen's Yosef Bhatti replicated Bartels' study with a much larger data set and, like him, found that the only variable with a statistically significant effect on representatives' ideologies is the ideological character of high-income voters.
  • 04/26/13 http://slate.me/11Z0m7V - Congress Ignores The Poor, Yet Again (www.slate.com) By Matthew Yglesias - "Well, this chart from Larry Bartels' 2005 paper on "Economic Inequality and Political Representation" tells you what you need to know."
  • 04/25/13 http://nyti.ms/180iVvF - The 1 Percent's Solution (www.nytimes.com) By Paul Krugman - "What, after all, do people want from economic policy? The answer, it turns out, is that it depends on which people you ask — a point documented in a recent research paper by the political scientists Benjamin Page, Larry Bartels and Jason Seawright."
  • 04/10/13 http://bit.ly/150gwEh - Who Needs Math? (washingtonmonthly.com) By Larry Bartels
  • 04/09/13 http://bit.ly/YJRQMV - Who Needs Math? (monkeycage.org) By Larry Bartels - "My own work has become rather less mathematical over the course of my career. When people ask why, I usually say that as I have come to learn more about politics, the "sophisticated" wrinkles have seemed to distract more than they added..."
  • 03/28/13 http://huff.to/16kVkqz - Surprising Studies Find DC Does What Wealthiest Want, Majority Opposes (huffingtonpost.com) By Dave Johnson - "A new study, Democracy and the Policy Preferences of Wealthy Americans, by Professors Benjamin I. Page, Jason Seawright and Larry M. Bartels, sought to gauge the political and policy priorities of the wealthy, and how these concerns contrast with the concerns of the rest of us."
  • 02/07/13 http://huff.to/VK6Dr8 - A New And Better Way to Rate Super Bowl Ads (Huffingtonpost.com) By John Geer - "...Vanderbilt/YouGov (VUYG) Ad Rating project offers a better way to get more systematic and more accurate data about the public's reactions to these ads..."
  • 01/21/13 http://on.tnr.com/YA8gE1 - The Equality Inaugural (newrepublic.com) By Timothy Noah - "The Vanderbilt political scientist Larry Bartels looked at income growth for families at various income percentiles under Democratic and Republican presidencies. His calculations covered the years 1948 to 2005. The graphic artist Catherine Mulbrandon of VisualizingEconomics.com took Bartels' data and turned it into a chart that illustrates very dramatically why, if you care at all about income inequality, you should vote Democratic."