Dr. Jeffrey Lazarus is a Professor of Political Science at Georgia State University. His focus is on how the interpersonal environment between members of Congress impacts their decision making. Through his research he aspires to spread awareness of the political process, resulting in more informed and active participants in the political process.
“I originally became interested in Congress because I read stories about members of congress’s petty reactions to disagreements, and I thought it was so entertaining […] it’s also so revealing that the people who are supposed to be running our country are acting like (this)” Lazarus recounted.
The current political climate has shifted how he approached his of research and classes. After the storming of the United States Capitol building and offices on Jan. 6, Dr. Lazarus recounted how it let him to view the political process differently. Rather than honing in on the social environment in which senators engage for re-election — taking the foundational democracy as a given — he began teaching and looking at what determines the strength, deterioration, and tenacity of a democracy.
“I always thought that the democracy in America was not like politics in the rest of the world, that a coup would never happen here, and that democracy would never backslide,” he said. “It has caused me to think about things from an even more fundamental view than I had before. Before, a lot of my attention was focused on how Congress works, how bills get passed, and what influences and motivates the actions of politicians. Now I’m thinking, “this is what it means to be a democracy, and this is how you measure how strong a democracy is’.”
The strength of an electoral connection is determined by how closely the actions of the elected official align with the demographic they are representing, Dr. Lazarus explained. The strength of this electoral connection has weakened over the years and he is researching alongside another professor to see how this has shifted over the years.
“Senators write monthly newsletters to their constituents. A researcher in New York shared a data file that they had collected of every newsletter senator sent to their constituents in the past 10 years. I am working with another faculty member to run computer programs and text recognition analysis,” he stated.
In another part of his research and scholarly portfolio, Dr. Lazarus and another colleague published a book comparing how male and female members of congress engaged with their constituencies, focusing on how members of Congress navigate gaining re-election specifically looking at tactics, connections and processes.
“We found that female members of Congress pay a lot more attention to their voters than male members of Congress,” he said.
Dr. Lazarus hopes that the concepts he uncovered in his research will be shared with others so that it can be shared by professors in their classrooms, the public in their daily lives, and politicians in their political processes.
“Politics affect every one of our lives every day,” he said. “I work to convince people that it’s worth their time to spend at least a little bit of their time paying attention to politics.”
—Luke Lew, Graduate Administrative Assistant, Office of the Provost