Faculty & Research Published Research Research Health Policy Leadership Political Science Facet Area of Focus - Research Christopher J. Ruhm Bala Mulloth Eileen Chou Benjamin Castleman Sarah Turner Edgar O. Olsen Sophie Trawalter Benjamin Converse Christine Mahoney Timothy Wilson Adam Leive James H. Wyckoff William Shobe Charles Holt Daniel W. Player Harry Harding Jay Shimshack Jeanine Braithwaite John Pepper Richard Bonnie Daphna Bassok Leora Friedberg Molly Lipscomb David Leblang James Savage John Holbein Sebastian Tello-Trillo Frederick P. Hitz Gabrielle Adams Gerald Warburg Isaac Mbiti Paul S. Martin Raymond C. Scheppach Ruth Gaare Bernheim Andrew S. Pennock Jazmin Brown-Iannuzzi Jennifer Lawless Michele Claibourn Philip Potter (-) Craig Volden Facet People - Research Center for Effective Lawmaking Facet UVA Partner - Research Published Research Political Science The Primary Path for Turning Legislative Effectiveness into Electoral Success Authors: Craig Volden, Sarah Treul, Alan E. Wiseman, Danielle M. Thomsen Effective lawmakers are the workhorses of the US Congress, yet we know little about the electoral payoffs of their efforts. Are effective lawmakers better at warding off challengers in the next election? Do they win at a greater rate? Learn more Working Paper Spatial Models of Legislative Effectiveness Authors: Craig Volden, Matthew P. Hitt, Alan E. Wiseman Spatial models of policymaking have evolved from the median voter theorem through the inclusion of institutional considerations such as political parties, committees, and various voting and amendment rules. Such models, however, implicitly assume that no policy is more effective than another at solving public policy problems and that all proposers are equally capable of advancing proposals. Learn more Published Research Party Calls and Reelection in the US Senate Authors: Ethan Hershberger, William Minozzi, Craig Volden Minozzi and Volden advance the idea that a substantial portion of partisan voting activity in Congress is a simple call to unity that is especially easily embraced by ideological extremists. If correct, Minozzi and Volden’s findings should extend from the House to the Senate, despite differences in institutional structures and in tools at the disposal of party leaders across the two chambers. Learn more Published Research Legislative Effectiveness in the United States Senate Authors: Craig Volden, Alan E. Wiseman Just like members of the House, US senators vary in how effective they are at lawmaking. We create Legislative Effectiveness Scores for each senator in each of the 93rd–113th Congresses (1973–2015). We use these scores to explore common claims about institutional differences in lawmaking between the House and the Senate. Learn more Published Research In Congress, Even Lawmakers’ Degrees Are a Partisan Issue: How higher education is shaping the House of Representatives Authors: Craig Volden, Ben Myers, Peter Olsen-Phillips Learn more Published Research Spatial Models of Legislative Effectiveness Authors: Craig Volden, Alan Wiseman, Matt Hitt Spatial models of policymaking have evolved from the median voter theorem to the inclusion of institutional considerations such as committees, political parties, and various voting and amendment rules. Such models, however, implicitly assume that no policy is better than another at solving public policy problems and that all policy makers are equally effective at advancing proposals. Learn more Published Research Ideology, Learning, and Policy Diffusion: Experimental Evidence Authors: Craig Volden, Daniel M. Butler, Adam Dynes, Boris Shor We introduce experimental research design to the study of policy diffusion in order to better understand how political ideology affects policymakers’ willingness to learn from one another’s experiences. Our two experiments–embedded in national surveys of U.S. municipal officials–expose local policymakers to vignettes describing the zoning and home foreclosure policies of other cities, offering opportunities to learn more. We find that: (1) policymakers who are ideologically predisposed against the described policy are relatively unwilling to learn from others, but (2) such ideological biases can be overcome with an emphasis on the policy’s success or on its adoption by co-partisans in other communities. Learn more Published Research Ideology, Learning, and Policy Diffusion: Experimental Evidence Authors: Craig Volden, Daniel M. Butler, Adam M. Dynes, Boris Shor We introduce experimental research design to the study of policy diffusion in order to better understand how political ideology affects policymakers’ willingness to learn from one another’s experiences. Our two experiments–embedded in national surveys of U.S. municipal officials–expose local policymakers to vignettes describing the zoning and home foreclosure policies of other cities, offering opportunities to learn more. Learn more Published Research Entrepreneurial Politics, Policy Gridlock, and Legislative Effectiveness Authors: Craig Volden, Alan E. Wiseman Learn more Published Research Failures: Diffusion, Learning, and Policy Abandonment Authors: Craig Volden Studies of the diffusion of policies tend to focus on innovations that successfully spread across governments. Implicit in such diffusion is the abandonment of the previous policy. Learn more Published Research Top-Down Federalism: State Policy Responses to National Government Discussions Authors: Craig Volden, Pamela Clouser McCann, Charles R. Shipan Learn more Published Research Incorporating Legislative Effectiveness into Nonmarket Strategy: The Case of Financial Services Reform and the Great Recession Authors: Craig Volden, Alan E. Wiseman The field of nonmarket strategy has expanded rapidly over the past 20 years to provide theoretical and practical guidance for managers seeking to influence policymaking. Much of this scholarship has built directly on spatial and “pivotal politics” models of lawmaking. Learn more Pagination Current page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Next page Next ›
Published Research Political Science The Primary Path for Turning Legislative Effectiveness into Electoral Success Authors: Craig Volden, Sarah Treul, Alan E. Wiseman, Danielle M. Thomsen Effective lawmakers are the workhorses of the US Congress, yet we know little about the electoral payoffs of their efforts. Are effective lawmakers better at warding off challengers in the next election? Do they win at a greater rate? Learn more
Working Paper Spatial Models of Legislative Effectiveness Authors: Craig Volden, Matthew P. Hitt, Alan E. Wiseman Spatial models of policymaking have evolved from the median voter theorem through the inclusion of institutional considerations such as political parties, committees, and various voting and amendment rules. Such models, however, implicitly assume that no policy is more effective than another at solving public policy problems and that all proposers are equally capable of advancing proposals. Learn more
Published Research Party Calls and Reelection in the US Senate Authors: Ethan Hershberger, William Minozzi, Craig Volden Minozzi and Volden advance the idea that a substantial portion of partisan voting activity in Congress is a simple call to unity that is especially easily embraced by ideological extremists. If correct, Minozzi and Volden’s findings should extend from the House to the Senate, despite differences in institutional structures and in tools at the disposal of party leaders across the two chambers. Learn more
Published Research Legislative Effectiveness in the United States Senate Authors: Craig Volden, Alan E. Wiseman Just like members of the House, US senators vary in how effective they are at lawmaking. We create Legislative Effectiveness Scores for each senator in each of the 93rd–113th Congresses (1973–2015). We use these scores to explore common claims about institutional differences in lawmaking between the House and the Senate. Learn more
Published Research In Congress, Even Lawmakers’ Degrees Are a Partisan Issue: How higher education is shaping the House of Representatives Authors: Craig Volden, Ben Myers, Peter Olsen-Phillips Learn more
Published Research Spatial Models of Legislative Effectiveness Authors: Craig Volden, Alan Wiseman, Matt Hitt Spatial models of policymaking have evolved from the median voter theorem to the inclusion of institutional considerations such as committees, political parties, and various voting and amendment rules. Such models, however, implicitly assume that no policy is better than another at solving public policy problems and that all policy makers are equally effective at advancing proposals. Learn more
Published Research Ideology, Learning, and Policy Diffusion: Experimental Evidence Authors: Craig Volden, Daniel M. Butler, Adam Dynes, Boris Shor We introduce experimental research design to the study of policy diffusion in order to better understand how political ideology affects policymakers’ willingness to learn from one another’s experiences. Our two experiments–embedded in national surveys of U.S. municipal officials–expose local policymakers to vignettes describing the zoning and home foreclosure policies of other cities, offering opportunities to learn more. We find that: (1) policymakers who are ideologically predisposed against the described policy are relatively unwilling to learn from others, but (2) such ideological biases can be overcome with an emphasis on the policy’s success or on its adoption by co-partisans in other communities. Learn more
Published Research Ideology, Learning, and Policy Diffusion: Experimental Evidence Authors: Craig Volden, Daniel M. Butler, Adam M. Dynes, Boris Shor We introduce experimental research design to the study of policy diffusion in order to better understand how political ideology affects policymakers’ willingness to learn from one another’s experiences. Our two experiments–embedded in national surveys of U.S. municipal officials–expose local policymakers to vignettes describing the zoning and home foreclosure policies of other cities, offering opportunities to learn more. Learn more
Published Research Entrepreneurial Politics, Policy Gridlock, and Legislative Effectiveness Authors: Craig Volden, Alan E. Wiseman Learn more
Published Research Failures: Diffusion, Learning, and Policy Abandonment Authors: Craig Volden Studies of the diffusion of policies tend to focus on innovations that successfully spread across governments. Implicit in such diffusion is the abandonment of the previous policy. Learn more
Published Research Top-Down Federalism: State Policy Responses to National Government Discussions Authors: Craig Volden, Pamela Clouser McCann, Charles R. Shipan Learn more
Published Research Incorporating Legislative Effectiveness into Nonmarket Strategy: The Case of Financial Services Reform and the Great Recession Authors: Craig Volden, Alan E. Wiseman The field of nonmarket strategy has expanded rapidly over the past 20 years to provide theoretical and practical guidance for managers seeking to influence policymaking. Much of this scholarship has built directly on spatial and “pivotal politics” models of lawmaking. Learn more