The Constitutional Convention Research Group
The Constitutional Convention is one of the most studied subjects in U.S. history. Despite over two centuries of popular and scholarly literature on the Convention, quantitative measures are still missing. As historian James Hutson puts it, "evidence had not been sufficiently evaluated, claims have not been confirmed, theses have not been tested. The result is a profusion of unsubstantiated assertions and contradictory hypotheses that frustrates the attempt to describe the course of events at the Constitutional Convention."
The Constitutional Convention Research Group (CCRG) is dedicated to the scientific study of the U.S. Constitutional Convention and the founding period. Although the CCRG is interested in all aspects of the Constitutional Convention, ratification, and American founding, our unique focus is on gathering quantitative measures and how they can help us evaluate theories about constitutional decision making.
One major impediment to studying the Convention stems from the lack of data on delegate votes. Since the delegates voted in state blocks and wanted to maintain secrecy, the Convention journal and Madison’s notes recorded the vote of the state blocs, but they did not record the votes of individual delegates. The current focus of the CCRG is on the recovery of delegate votes at the Constitutional Convention using statements delegates made in debate, the formal rule that a state's vote was based on the vote of a majority of its delegates, and the positions gleaned from various manuscripts and outside sources. Such research is akin to studies which recover presidential positions on congressional roll call votes. With the generous support of a grant from the National Science Foundation, the CCRG has uncovered delegate votes as well as information about delegate demographics, assets, and constituencies. CCRG data should be the some of most comprehensive data on the U.S. Constitutional Convention.
For more information on the CCRG, or the data we house, please contact Keith Dougherty at dougherk@uga.edu or call (706)542-2989.
The Constitutional Convention Research Group (CCRG) is dedicated to the scientific study of the U.S. Constitutional Convention and the founding period. Although the CCRG is interested in all aspects of the Constitutional Convention, ratification, and American founding, our unique focus is on gathering quantitative measures and how they can help us evaluate theories about constitutional decision making.
One major impediment to studying the Convention stems from the lack of data on delegate votes. Since the delegates voted in state blocks and wanted to maintain secrecy, the Convention journal and Madison’s notes recorded the vote of the state blocs, but they did not record the votes of individual delegates. The current focus of the CCRG is on the recovery of delegate votes at the Constitutional Convention using statements delegates made in debate, the formal rule that a state's vote was based on the vote of a majority of its delegates, and the positions gleaned from various manuscripts and outside sources. Such research is akin to studies which recover presidential positions on congressional roll call votes. With the generous support of a grant from the National Science Foundation, the CCRG has uncovered delegate votes as well as information about delegate demographics, assets, and constituencies. CCRG data should be the some of most comprehensive data on the U.S. Constitutional Convention.
For more information on the CCRG, or the data we house, please contact Keith Dougherty at dougherk@uga.edu or call (706)542-2989.
The American Constitution: 225th Anniversary of the Ratification
The CCRG, the Department of Political Science, and the Department of History at the University of Georgia are proud to report the results of a conference celebrating a landmark anniversary of the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, supported by the National Science Foundation. The conference was held in Athens, GA March 22 - 24, 2013. Sessions were video tapped. For more information, visit our website www.225thanniversary.weebly.com.
