Ira Katznelson

Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History at Columbia University, John Lapinski, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale University, and Rose Razaghian, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale University, form a working group that will examine the entire history of Congressional roll call votes to study how the type of policy at stake in legislative debate determines political relationships and outcomes. Noting that previous studies of Congress assumed an environment in which external factors (like sudden changes in public opinion following war or natural disaster) did not influence legislative decision-making, this group will pay particular attention to the contexts that surround individual policy debates and the shocks that influence policy-making.