Tracing the History of Polarization in Congress
David Broockman, Professor
Political Science
Applications for Fall 2024 are closed for this project.
Scholars and commentators argue that Congress is broken because both parties' politicians take increasingly extreme positions on issues, failing to listen to voters. However, these claims are based on assuming that politicians of both parties don't adjust which proposals they make as voters' demands and the world change. In other words, many claims that politicians don't listen to voters are based on the assumption that politicians don't listen to voters. In this project, we will use a new methodology developed by Professor Broockman to measure how politicians' positions have changed over time. The method requires present-day voters or politicians to express how they would have voted on legislation Congress voted on in the past. The project will involve collecting the details of historical legislation to form the survey questions in this survey.
Role: Conducting research on historical legislation, summarizing important features of historical legislation. Weekly meeting with faculty and/or project manager.
Qualifications: No specific qualifications required.
Preferred qualifications: Experience conducting historical research, especially on Congress or American political history.
Political science, public policy, or history majors or minors preferred.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Jack Maedgen, Staff Researcher
Hours: 6-8 hrs
Related website: https://polisci.berkeley.edu/people/person/david-edward-broockman