Suchergebnisse

We examine the social network structure of Congress from 1973 to 2004. We treat two Members of Congress as directly linked if they have cosponsored at least one bill together. We then construct explicit networks for each year using data from all forms of legislation, including resolutions, public and private bills, and amendments. We show that Congress exemplifies the characteristics of a "small world" network and that the varying small-world properties during this time period are related to the number of important bills passed. Adapted from the source document.

Social scientists have long been interested in how academic
disciplines are organized (Ben-David and Collins 1966; Kuhn 1970; Lipset 1994; Rojas 2003;
Somit and Tanenhaus 1964; 1967). One important element of this
organization is the network of Ph.D. placements among Ph.D.-granting
institutions. Various authors have linked the structure of
placements to prestige rankings of departments (for sociology
departments see e.g., Hanneman 2001; and
Burris 2004; for political science
departments see Masuoka, Grofman, and Feld 2007c), or have used various features of the structure
of academic exchange networks to examine the shaping of disciplinary
careers and practices (Feld, Bisciglia, and Ynalvez 2003; Masuoka, Grofman, and Feld 2007b). There is also a more general
literature on status and market exchange (see e.g., Podolny 2005). We are
indebted to Clover Behrend-Gethard for bibliographic
assistance.