Robert Lucas Williams
Assistant Professor of History and Government, Misericordia University
Chapter Member: Central Pennsylvania SSN
Areas of Expertise:
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About Robert
Williams’ research concerns representation and partisanship in the American context, particularly in the state legislatures. Specifically, his focus on representation involves how institutional characteristics, such as term limits, professionalism, and chamber rules and norms, affect legislator behavior. His work on partisanship includes why and when party members follow and shirk the positions of their party and its chamber leadership.
Contributions
Do Term Limits Encourage Legislators to Ignore Constituents?
Key Findings Brief,
Publications
"Partisanship and Reciprocity in Cross-Chamber Legislative Interactions" (with ). The Journal of Politics (forthcoming).
Provides a network-analytic approach to understand how legislators collaborate in order to promote their own policy agenda.
"Parties, Term Limits, and Representation in the U.S. States" (with ). American Politics Research 42, no. 1 (2014): 171-193.
Examines how severing the electoral connection influences legislative behavior.