Yeah I mean main challenge in this and other agenda-setting is measuring the "denominator." What really is available but kept off the table by all mainsteam actors?

Sure but that's a different process. The Overton Window is not a "thing" you can study. It's a rhetorical device. What's the empirical referent? ~some proposals are considered acceptable to debate and others aren't?

Actually put that way sounds kind of like Third Face of Power (or maybe the 4th?)

Well, so the Overton Window doesn't come from scholarship, it is a concept that eponymous Overton used to explain the value of think tanks to potential funders of the Mackinac Center, where he worked. One could try to conceptualize and measure it, but for now there's basically nothing to cite.

Super glad to see this in print! It was a labor of love for @alexanderfurnas.com, @geofflorenz.bsky.social, and I -- we really love these data and think they have plenty of potential outside of this paper. Thanks to the Center for Effective Lawmaking for feedback! thelawmakers.org/legislative-...

It's true. A few days before heading to MPSA (which was great!) I got word that I'm being tenured and promoted to Associate Professor, effective August.

This career has been a gift, and I know that the institution of tenure is itself increasingly precious. I hope to use it well.

This was a fun fact to learn! Small world indeed. Go Matadors!

At conferences, I expect to meet people I’d only really known on social media.

I didn’t expect one of them to have gone to my rival high school. @geofflorenz.bsky.social

Excited to share that my paper on citizen-to-citizen persuasion, co-authored with Carlos Rueda-Cañòn and @tjryan02.bsky.social, was just accepted at the Journal of Politics @thejop.bsky.social . Link: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... 🧵

Looks cool!

Been wondering what to do with that awesome dissertation on legislative politics defended in the past two years?

Nominate it for the Carl Albert Dissertation Award! Submission deadline March 30th! Link for deets (note: one nominee per degree-granting dept).

connect.apsanet.org/s3/carl-albe...

I am sorry I came off as condescending. It was not my intent.

My original interlocutor won't see this, but for some suggestive evidence that cynicism actually is bad, including for the things that we're all worried about in America in 2025: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

I understand your cynicism given everything going on right now, but FWIW "American politics" is not one thing. It is the work of many people. Some can be moved by persistence, building trust, and good arguments. Usually not the folks you see on the news.

Again, cynicism is self-perpetuating.

Also I don't know about you but I've never had that kind of money to throw around (including when I was a lobbyist before grad school) so I have had to resort to, like, persistence, building trust, and making good arguments.

Poli Sci has studied the incidence of bribery and effectiveness of campaign contributions on legislative behavior and outcomes. Long-running debate in poli sci with surprisingly mixed results given how intuitive/"obvious" it is to so many that money buys policy. Cynicism is self-perpetuating.

FWIW, from staff interviews and theoretical models, I'd guess obvious form letters have ~zero persuasive value. If they're from non-constituents, they're actively self-defeating. But persuasive value is not the only thing: engaging w/ elected officials between elections is a good habit to build!

You are quite welcome! This is very much the tip of the iceberg and there's a great group of scholars working in this and related areas.

I am happy to answer questions if folks have any, but for starters:

This report: www.congressfoundation.org/citizen-cent...

This article: www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.... and I'm teaching Lupia's more recent book in my class: global.oup.com/academic/pro... . (he was SBE asst director at NSF)

Hi! I'm a political scientist who studies what makes advocacy effective (sent here by my psychologist spouse @tierneylorenz.bsky.social ). A phone call with the staffer dealing with the issue > letter you compose on your own >>>>> a form letter. Key: be unique + courteous + make effort.

🚨 New year, new working paper 🚨

"In Control but Incoherent: Institutional Power, Electoral Politics, and Message Discipline in Congress" with Gechun Lin (WUSTL). Available here: benjaminnoble.org/files/papers...

Read on for the 🧵 version…

New Cambridge Element 'Cooperating Factions' by @blumrm.bsky.social & @profhansnoel.bsky.social is now free to read for 4 weeks!

cup.org/4iqOjiu

"This Element uses data on party leader endorsements in nominations to identify a network of party actors..."

#cambridgeelements #politics

Small-ish for a "city" but still pretty big

I'd say Lincoln, NE is pretty well-governed.

It's hard to study the effects of most causes... but exposure to media coverage is one of those things we *can* randomize.

When we do, the basic finding is straightforward:

People (of all political orientations) update in the direction of information, by a small amount.