Brent Ranalli

Brent Ranalli

Senior Fellow, The Congressional Research Institute
Chapter Member: Boston SSN
Areas of Expertise:

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About Brent

Ranalli's research at the Congressional Research Institute focuses on legislative transparency, and in particular on the effects of the Sunshine Reforms of the 1970s on partisanship, comity, and lobbyist influence in Congress.

Contributions

Why A Well-Functioning Legislature Requires a Balance of Sunshine and Secrecy

  • James G. D'Angelo
  • David King

In the News

Opinion: "The Dark Side of Sunlight," Brent Ranalli (with James G. D'Angelo), Foreign Affairs, May/June 2019.

Publications

The 1970s Sunshine Reforms and the Transformation of Congressional Lobbying (with James D'Angelo and David King)., Congressional Research Insitute December 2018.

Finds the well-known "march to Washington" of lobbyists in the 1970s correlates well with and can be explained by the near-simultaneous revolution in Congressional transparency (the "Sunshine Reforms"). Finds that transparency put power in the hands of lobbyists.