Department: Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration
Professor Stuart Kasdin
Description: Our project examines how federal agencies respond when there is a change in the partisan control of Congress. Do government agencies allocate program resources so as to best accomplish program goals, without regard to the political party affiliations of those in Congress? Or, perhaps they favor districts represented by the President’s party, or favor any districts whose congressional representatives are positioned to support the agency. Also, across government do federal agencies react differently, responding with varied strategies to a changing political environment?
We will examine the role of government agencies in resource allocation choices, focusing on how federal government agencies responded to the 1994 election, when control of Congress shifted from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. In particular we will focus on the impact of the election on the agencies’ allocations of contracts. Do they respond to the election by allocating more contract resources to Republican districts?
Tasks: The student would do several things revolving primarily around data preparation. First, in a spreadsheet we need to determine the partisan affiliations of legislators in office in 1993 and in 1995. Next we need to get the data on contracts for a set of agencies. All of this data is available on-line. Subsequent data analysis will depend on the student’s quantitative background.
Time Commitment/ Credit Hour: 3 hours per week; 2 credit option
To Apply: Email a resume and relevant experience to skasdin@gwu.edu
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