Political Parties and American Democracy Mini-Conference II: Data Sources for the Study of Congress

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Part of Mini-Conference

• Political Parties and American Democracy Mini-Conference II

Session Description

Studies of the Legislative branch often rely upon datasets that directly or indirectly describe actions inside the U.S. Congress and its support offices and agencies. However, the Legislative branch releases significantly more data than is commonly realized by academics and others who study Congress.

This session will provide an overview of often overlooked data sources about Legislative branch activities from the perspective of an expert who has spent 15 years encouraging Congress to release more information about its activities and has previously served as a congressonal staffer. It will include a review of select non-official but reliable sources of data generated by civil society and journalists.

Underpinning the conversation will be a catalog of datasets, including what they contain and where they can be found. It will also include a call to action for those in attendance to describe datasets that they would like to have access to in order to support their research.

Sub Unit

• Theme Panel

Chair

• Daniel Schuman POPVOX Foundation

Presenters

• Daniel Schuman POPVOX Foundation

• Derek Willis The New York Times

• James R Jones Rutgers University