ISPS Policy-Related Skills Development: “How to research legislative history,” with John Dearborn, Yale University
ISPS POLICY-RELATED SKILLS DEVELOPMENT - FALL 2020 VIRTUAL TRAINING
How did a particular policy get passed by Congress? Or, more simply, how did a bill become a law? These are basic questions in politics, but researching legislative history involves many steps, questions, and historical sources. In this session, we will discuss how to research the history behind a law passed by Congress. Some items that will be covered include:
- What kinds of questions can you answer by researching legislative history?
- What types of evidence should a researcher seek to find?
- How can you find these sources both at Yale and elsewhere?
- How can you organize your research to effectively present your findings?
Participants will be guided through a demonstration of legislative history research focusing on these questions.
John A. Dearborn is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Center for the Study of Representative Institutions at the MacMillan Center and the Policy Lab at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies. He received his PhD from Yale in 2019. His research areas include the Presidency, Congress, American Political Development, American Political Thought, and Public Policy. He is the author of two forthcoming books, Power Shifts: Congress and Presidential Representation and Phantoms of a Beleaguered Republic: The Deep State and the Unitary Executive (with Stephen Skowronek and Desmond King).
