Agendas Short Course at 2003 APSA Meeting

It is imperative that political scientists and others interested in policy change rely only on the highest quality data to ensure that false or misleading implications do not slip into analyses. The Policy Agendas Project uses various archived sources to trace changes in the national policy agenda and their effects on public policy outcomes since the Second World War.

The Policy Agendas Project is directed by Bryan Jones and John Wilkerson of the University of Washington and Frank Baumgartner of Pennsylvania State University, with funds from the National Science Foundation, the University of Washington, and Pennsylvania State University. This multi-year project is focused on collecting information on all bills introduced in Congress, all congressional hearings, all statutes passed, all stories in Congressional Quarterly Almanac and a sample of New York Times coverage, as well as detailed breakouts of congressional budget authority since the end of World War II. The data from these sources are coded according to a common policy content code that ensures compatibility across time. The recently-published volume, entitled Policy Dynamics (University of Chicago Press), captures some of the most recent research to make use of these data sets. In the past 3 years, many of the existing data sets have been expanded and improved. Several additional data sets are in development for release during the next 2 years.

This proposed short course will offer participants updated information about the status of the existing Policy Agendas data sets, as well as information about the data additions envisioned for each of the next two years. This short course is designed as a hand-on workshop that will make use of computers to provide participants access to the data sets and a new web-based tool for using them. This soon-to-be-released data tool permits researchers at remote sites to conduct web-based analysis of multiple data sets, as well as selective downloading of raw data for subsequent research. Participants will be encouraged to explore the data sets in real time and bring with them questions from their own research that could be addressed using the data sets provided or the online analysis tool. Several project members and interested researchers will be available to lead hands-on sessions and answer any questions about the data and its applicability to a broad range of public policy and legislative affairs research.

Names and Affiliations of Workshop Participants:

Bryan D. Jones, University of Washington

Frank Baumgartner, Pennsylvania State University

John Wilkerson, University of Washington

T. Jens Feeley, University of Washington

Heather Larsen, University of Washington

Erin de la Mare, University of Washington