American Politics Research Workshop (APRW)

This Week's Speaker

Devin Judge-Lord, “Inequality in Administrative Democracy: Large-Sample Evidence from American Financial Regulation" (with Daniel Carpenter, Angelo Dagonel, Christopher T. Kenny, Brian Libgober, Jacob Waggoner, Steven Rashin, Susan Webb Yackee)

Abstract

Research on inequality in American democracy typically focuses on legislative processes, largely overlooking administrative policymaking, where most U.S. law is now made under pressure from vast amounts of money, lobbying, and political mobilization. Leveraging a broad suite of measurements for organizational wealth, participation, and lobbying success during rulemaking, we provide the first large-scale assessment of wealth inequality in agency rulemaking. Drawing upon an original database of almost 30,000 organizational comments on agency rules implementing the Dodd-Frank Act, we document several patterns: (a) wealthier organizations are more likely to participate in the rulemaking process, (b) wealthier organizations generally advance more sophisticated comments, and (c) wealthier organizations enjoy more success in shifting the content of federal agency rules. Our findings show how organizational wealth translates into political power in a country that is increasingly governed by agency regulations.

The American Politics Research Workshop (Gov 3004) meets all academic year, Tuesdays, 12:00 - 2:00 PM, in CGIS K354. This workshop presents an opportunity for graduate students and Harvard faculty to present and receive feedback on their current research. The workshop highlights key theoretical and empirical findings from Harvard affiliates on topics related to American politics.

All interested Harvard affiliates are invited to attend.