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The Knights: A Capitol Hill Production

Demarchi, Alessandro Clifford LU (2026) SIMZ11 20261
Master of Science in Global Studies
Abstract
Since the rise of Trumpism, debates in Washington have come to resemble the grotesque dialogues of Aristophanes’ political satires more and more. Has this had an impact on the legislative effectiveness of freshman Republican Con-gressmembers? That is the question this paper seeks to answer. Starting from a dataset comprising all freshmen Republicans serving from 2001 to 2025, a com-posite Legislative Effectiveness Index (LEI) is constructed by combining bill passage, co-sponsorship support, and U.S. Senate companion legislation. OLS regression models with interaction effects are used to compare the “Pre-MAGA” and “MAGA” eras, controlling for ideological leanings, fundraising, party loyal-ty, entrepreneurship, and bipartisan cooperation.
... (More)
Since the rise of Trumpism, debates in Washington have come to resemble the grotesque dialogues of Aristophanes’ political satires more and more. Has this had an impact on the legislative effectiveness of freshman Republican Con-gressmembers? That is the question this paper seeks to answer. Starting from a dataset comprising all freshmen Republicans serving from 2001 to 2025, a com-posite Legislative Effectiveness Index (LEI) is constructed by combining bill passage, co-sponsorship support, and U.S. Senate companion legislation. OLS regression models with interaction effects are used to compare the “Pre-MAGA” and “MAGA” eras, controlling for ideological leanings, fundraising, party loyal-ty, entrepreneurship, and bipartisan cooperation.
While the results reveal no significant decline in legislative effectiveness among freshmen Republicans in the latter period, traits associated with lawmak-ing success have registered meaningful changes. Attendance rate, total bill intro-ductions, and bipartisan introductions have grown less predictive of legislative effectiveness, while fundraising totals have become more positively linked with it. These findings point towards a lower chamber that increasingly rewards heter-odox strategies to navigate the waves of cross-party polarization and intra-party fragmentation. Additionally, this paper contextualizes such developments within the broader rise of national populism in Western democracies, outlining their im-plications for legislatures and future governability. (Less)
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author
Demarchi, Alessandro Clifford LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
Analyzing the Legislative Effectiveness of Freshmen Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives (2001–2025)
course
SIMZ11 20261
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Congress, legislative effectiveness, MAGA, populism, Republicans
language
English
id
9226537
date added to LUP
2026-06-25 09:30:43
date last changed
2026-06-25 09:30:43
@misc{9226537,
  abstract     = {{Since the rise of Trumpism, debates in Washington have come to resemble the grotesque dialogues of Aristophanes’ political satires more and more. Has this had an impact on the legislative effectiveness of freshman Republican Con-gressmembers? That is the question this paper seeks to answer. Starting from a dataset comprising all freshmen Republicans serving from 2001 to 2025, a com-posite Legislative Effectiveness Index (LEI) is constructed by combining bill passage, co-sponsorship support, and U.S. Senate companion legislation. OLS regression models with interaction effects are used to compare the “Pre-MAGA” and “MAGA” eras, controlling for ideological leanings, fundraising, party loyal-ty, entrepreneurship, and bipartisan cooperation.
While the results reveal no significant decline in legislative effectiveness among freshmen Republicans in the latter period, traits associated with lawmak-ing success have registered meaningful changes. Attendance rate, total bill intro-ductions, and bipartisan introductions have grown less predictive of legislative effectiveness, while fundraising totals have become more positively linked with it. These findings point towards a lower chamber that increasingly rewards heter-odox strategies to navigate the waves of cross-party polarization and intra-party fragmentation. Additionally, this paper contextualizes such developments within the broader rise of national populism in Western democracies, outlining their im-plications for legislatures and future governability.}},
  author       = {{Demarchi, Alessandro Clifford}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Knights: A Capitol Hill Production}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}