Beth A. Rosenson

Associate Professor of Political Science,

University of Florida

Anderson Hall 202

---

Phone 352-392-0262 ext. 232

Fax 352-392-8127

rosenson@polisci.ufl.edu

---

TRY NOT TO BECOME A MAN OF SUCCESS BUT RATHER A MAN OF VALUE.  - Albert Einstein.

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about? - Thoreau

THE HIGHEST FORM OF WISDOM IS KINDNESS. - The Talmud

LINK TO TEXTBOOKS FOR FALL 2008
UNDERGRADUATE COURSES POS 2041: FALL 2010 SYLLABUS POS 2041: TA ASSIGNMENTS AND PAPER TOPIC INFORMATION Ethics in American Politics Media and Politics American Political Development GRADUATE COURSES American Political Development POS 6045: American Field Seminar Fall 2009 Political Communications	LINK TO MY CV HERE (MS WORD) VIEW CV AS HTML EDUCATION Ph.D. in Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000 M.A. in Political Science, Yale University, 1991 B.A. in Government, Wesleyan University, 1987 RESEARCH INTERESTS State legislatures and Congress Legislative voting behavior Political ethics, corruption, and political reform  American political development  Media and politics CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS Congressional ethics investigations: the changing content and partisanship of House ethics charges, 1798-2004 (book manuscript) Causes of corruption in the American states: the impact of campaign finance laws, legislative professionalization and dierct democracy Privately-sponsored Congressional travel  (which groups provide it, which members engage in it; and a second study of six individual trip sponsors and which members they offer trips to) Media coverage of state legislatures: quantity, content and tone (an examination of newspaper coverage of the California and Florida state legislatures) BOOK The Shadowlands of Conduct: Ethics and Politics in the States (Georgetown University Press, 2005) This book examines the passage of various "conflict of interest" laws aimed at regulating legislators' ethics in the American states from 1954 to the present. Through case studies and quantitative analysis of the passage of various ethics restrictions, the book explores the sources of support for and opposition to legislative ethics reform and the variation that exists in ethics laws across states.  The book highlights the role that actors outside and inside state legislatures have played in the passage of ethics reform, and also emphasizes the substantial gaps and loopholes that the laws (and enforcement mechanisms) contain. As such, the findings provide a cautionary tale for political reformers about the limits of self-regulatory reforms.
HONORS PROGRAM INFORMATION