Current Legacy Fund Projects:

Legislative Performance and Congressional Accountability: Do lawmakers perceive that the legislative accomplishments of Congress are an important ingredient in the choices voters make? If so, does this depend on whether the lawmakers serve in the majority or minority party? Research on these questions will be conducted by an undergraduate Political Science major in collaboration with Professor Scott Adler and will involve a survey of former members of Congress. The student will be using data from this research project in her senior honors thesis. Amount: $770

Experiments on Representation: What kind of representation do people want? Do they prefer descriptive representation, where the composition of Congress closely resembles the demographics of the public? Or do they prefer substantive representation, where representatives and the public share issue priorities? These funds would support a team of undergraduates and graduate students to collaborate with Professors Jennifer Wolak and Eric Juenke in designing and conducting a set of experiments to test these questions. Amount: $800

Big Box retailing and local politics: Funds will be used to support a graduate students and faculty member (David Brown) to collect data, conduct interviews, and organize focus groups for a project that seeks to understand how big box retailing affects politics in local communities. The study is designed to determine whether a connection exists between the presence of Wal-Mart, the local business community, and local politics (turnout, voting, and partisan politics). The study will produce co-authored articles that will be presented at conferences as well as a book length manuscript. Amount: $900.