Center For The Study Of Democratic Institutions

Losing experienced employees from federal service jobs can have serious consequences, and there's a good way to lessen the chances of that happening, a new study shows. Read More

Whether politicians and the press seem like friend or foe, elected officials regularly use news outlets to share and defend their views to the public. New research from Vanderbilt University finds certain media actually influenced the voting behavior of politicians. Read More

Vanderbilt political scientists John Geer and Josh Clinton presented results from the Vanderbilt Poll to help reporters prepare to cover the 108th General Assembly. Read More

Research by Vanderbilt political science professor Alan Wiseman and his coauthors find women in Congress in the minority party are more effective than their male counterparts when it comes to introducing and negotiating bills, spurring action on those bills, and ultimately seeing them become law. Read More

Tennessee voters prefer the state run the online Health Care Exchange required by the Affordable Health Care Act, according to a new poll from Vanderbilt University. More than 45 questions were asked of voters on a variety of subjects. Read More

John Geer (Daniel Dubois/Vanderbilt) Negative ads, excessive campaign spending, and the agenda of the “lame duck” Congress were topics of discussion at the Oct. 15 Federal Forum panel held at The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons at Vanderbilt multipurpose room. The event, hosted by Vanderbilt’s Office of Federal… Read More

Watch video of a lunchtime panel discussion on “Election 2012 and the Congressional ‘Lame Duck’: What’s at Stake?”. The panel, hosted by Vanderbilt’s Office of Federal Relations and the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, will be moderated by Beth Fortune, vice chancellor for public affairs, and will feature: John… Read More

The United States Congress Vanderbilt’s Office of Federal Relations and the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions will host a lunchtime panel discussing “Election 2012 and the Congressional ‘Lame Duck’: What’s at Stake?” on Monday, Oct. 15. The event is scheduled from noon to… Read More

Fred Davis Fred Davis, who served as a media strategist for both George W. Bush and John McCain, will be the second guest in the three-part Election Event Series being sponsored by the Department of Political Science, the First Amendment Center, the… Read More

One of Mitt Romney’s latest campaign commercials against President Barack Obama seems to be hitting a nerve among independent voters, data from the Vanderbilt/YouGov Ad Rating Project shows. Read More

Positive ads from President Obama won't get the job done of defeating challenger Mitt Romney in the presidential race, data from the Vanderbilt/YouGov Ad Rating Project continues to suggest. Read More

Nearly a third of American voters finds a new ‘positive’ ad by President Obama contrasting his approach to the economy with that of Mitt Romney to be 'disgusting.' Read More

Voter reaction to campaign advertisements by the presidential candidates will be evaluated this fall through a partnership between Vanderbilt University and YouGov, a prominent research firm. Read More

The latest Vanderbilt poll shows Republican Mitt Romney firmly in position to win the state of Tennessee in the presidential election in November. Read More

This week on VUCast, Vanderbilt’s weekly newscast  highlighting research, experts, students, sports and everything Vanderbilt: Provocative Politics: the power of a sensational ad See the Civil War through the eyes of those who stayed at home Vanderbilt Emergency Medicine goes hip hop [vucastblurb]… Read More

Rebecca Traister, a Salon.com senior writer who covered the 2008 presidential race from a feminist and personal perspective, will speak at Vanderbilt University’s Stevenson Center at 7 p.m. Feb. 22. Read More

New Vanderbilt research shows that though the Republican base is generally biased against Mormonism, Mitt Romney’s religion would not hurt his chances among the GOP faithful as a presidential candidate in the general election. Read More

Vanderbilt political scientist David E. Lewis says a move for authority to shrink the federal government by President Obama is an attempt to preempt Republican challenger Mitt Romney from positioning himself as the candidate associated with government efficiency. Read More

The nomination of former Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray to head up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “is clearly an issue that has come to the forefront because of election year politics,” said David Lewis, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University. Read More

The conventional wisdom about Newt Gingrich's troubles at the Iowa caucuses may be mistaken, says John Geer of Vanderbilt University. Blaming a barrage of attack ads aimed at the former House speaker for his decline in the polls may be inaccurate, Geer believes. Read More