Joshua Carstens Huder
Ph.D Candidate
006 Anderson Hall
huder@ufl.edu
Office hours
Tuesdays: 2:00-3:00
Thursdays: 3:00-4:00
And by appointment
About Me
I am currently a doctorate candidate
at the University
of
Florida. I am originally from Orlando but left Florida to attend
Rutgers University. At Rutgers, I graduated in January 2005 with a
double major in Political Science and Philosophy. While I've largely
shed philosophy, in a strict sense, from my graduate studies it remains
a formidible presence in my approach to politics, teaching, and
academia.
Generally, I am interested in
political institutions,
political psychology, and American political development. More
specifically, my research gravitates toward political competition
within and between institutions of government. Changes to America's
political institutions fundamentally alters how constituents and
politicians interact. Understanding how these changes affect and create
long-term historical processes is an important focus in
my research.
My dissertation focuses on political competition and the
institutional development of Congress. Congressional politics are not
only affected by institutional changes but they similarly affect
institutional changes. Members opposing Congress's legislative
organization take public steps to alter their strategies, and
ultimately, the legislative organization. However, reform politics are
not surface level adjustments to congresssional procedure. They are
apart of a larger dynamic to change or maintain the
procedural paradigm within the institution. In other words, aggregate
accumulations of reform politics define long-term trends of procedural
stability and upheaval. This dissertation is a macro-level approach to
institutional development, but it sheds light on the interdependence of
minor and major reforms to the procedural development of Congress.
Ultimately, long-term processes of reform politics and institutional
organizations interact to transform Congress's legislative paradigm.
