Welcome

I am the associate director of the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center and an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Oklahoma.  My research and teaching interests span the fields of American politics and research methodology, with a particular focus on the development and organization of American political institutions (primarily the U.S. Congress) and congressional elections. My ongoing work centers on the transformation of the U.S. House and congressional leadership during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

My published work appears in outlets such as the American Journal of Political Science, The Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and American Politics Research. I am the recipient of the Pi Sigma Alpha Award for the best paper presented at the annual meeting of the Southern Political Science Association and the CQ Press Award for the best paper on legislative politics presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association.

I earned my Ph.D. from Michigan State University, where I was a Fellow in the Political Institutions and Public Choice Program. Prior to my current appointment at OU, I held faculty appointments at the University of South Carolina and the University at Buffalo (SUNY).

Curriculum Vitae

Research

Selected publications:

Charles J. Finocchiaro and Scott A. MacKenzie. N.D. “Grist for the Hill: How Constituency Demand and Committee Service Influence Legislators’ Attention to Issues.” Journal of Politics, forthcoming. View

Matthew J. Geras, Sarina Rhinehart, H. Benjamin Ashton, and Charles J. Finocchiaro. N.D. “‘All in the Family?’: Assessing the Impact of Child Gender on Congressional Behavior.” Politics, Groups, and Identities, forthcoming. View

David Darmofal, Charles J. Finocchiaro, and Indridi H. Indridason. N.D. “Roll-Call Voting Under Random Seating Assignment.” Political Science Research and Methods, forthcoming. View

Robert M. Stein, et al. 2020. “Waiting to Vote in the 2016 Presidential Election: Evidence from a Multi-county Study.” Political Research Quarterly 73: 439-453. View

Charles J. Finocchiaro and Scott A. MacKenzie. 2018. “Making Washington Work: Legislative Entrepreneurship and the Personal Vote from the Gilded Age to the Great Depression.” American Journal of Political Science 62: 113-131. View

Susanne Schorpp and Charles J. Finocchiaro. 2017. “Congress and the President in Times of War.” American Politics Research 45: 840-865. View

Charles J. Finocchiaro and Jeffery A. Jenkins. 2016. “Distributive Politics, the Electoral Connection, and the Antebellum U.S. Congress: The Case of Military Service Pensions.” Journal of Theoretical Politics 28: 192-224. View


Working papers:

Charles J. Finocchiaro. “The Public Buildings Boom: Distributive and Partisan Politics in Congress”

Peter T. McLaughlin, Charles J. Finocchiaro, and Michael H. Crespin. “Strategic States: The Congressional Roots of Federal Grant Applications”

Peter T. McLaughlin, Peter Olson, Nathan T. Barron, B. Henry Ashton, Rachel Blum, Charles J. Finocchiaro, and Michael H. Crespin. “Ends Versus Means: Public Support for Congressional Redistricting.”

Scholar Dataverse

Teaching

Spring 2024:

Strategies in Politics and Public Policy (P SC 4083) 
Research Design (Graduate; P SC 6003)

Fall 2023:

On Sabbatical

Spring 2023:

American Federal Government (P SC 1113) 
Research Design (Graduate; P SC 6003)

Fall 2022:

Politics, Policy, and the Constitution (P SC 3493)

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