Political science researcher uses Stampede to analyze how spending affects party polarization
Intense fighting, sequesters, and threats of shutdown are what many people associate with the current government in the United States. If it seems that this tension has become more amplified, that's because it has. Since 2010, when Republicans gained control of both the House and Senate, gridlock in government has been even more pervasive and damaging to enacting legislative change.
Some scholars point to divided government, a situation where one party controls the White House and the other controls one or both houses of Congress, as an important source of partisan conflict. But one researcher argues that disagreements over federal spending priorities may have a significant effect on the rise in party polarization over the last few decades as well.
Eric Svensen, a researcher and lecturer in the Department of Government at The University of Texas at Austin, is working to understand why government often seems incapable of solving many issues facing the country. He's analyzing how spending affects partisan conflict in Washington.
DW-Nominate is the industry standard for ideology scores used by congressional scholars to measure party polarization in government. It creates ideology scores for legislators ranging from -1 (extremely liberal) to +1 (extremely conservative), based on their roll call voting. Scores between zero and -1 denote legislators who are more liberal in a spatial mapping of legislator preferences, whereas scores between zero and +1 signify those who are right of center.
However, because DW-Nominate scores are biennial, Svensen faced a major challenge while trying to compare these estimates with annual spending.
"I wanted to look at annual and quarterly data, and there was no option for me to get that information. So like someone who's hopelessly naïve I said, ‘I'll do it on my laptop,' but my computer just couldn't handle it," said Svensen. "I also thought about putting a bunch of computers together to increase processing power, but I'm not a computer guy and could only guess at how to solve this challenge. And then I remembered that we have supercomputers on campus."
"TACC is one of the most valuable resources that people of the university should be more aware of. In the social sciences, it seems like we've exhausted everything in small data. With big data and data analytics, you need high processing power from supercomputers, people just need to figure out how to use it."The largest, most capable supercomputer on campus is Stampede, one of the most powerful in the world, housed at the Texas Advanced Computing Center. Svensen gained access to the resource through a UT-Austin allocation, which allows any UT researcher to take advantage of advanced computing and support services. A self-proclaimed, non-programmer, Svensen worked closely with TACC's Director of User Services, Chris Hempel, to run datasets and analyze data.
"TACC staff members continually work with research teams across the country that are not aware of what high-performance computing, visualization, and data analytics resources and services can contribute to their research efforts," Hempel said. "We look forward to continue working with Dr. Svensen and will leverage this relationship to further awareness of high-performance computing and how it can be harnessed to enhance research efforts — even by ‘non-programmers'."
"TACC was a godsend because now I have the processing power to get the estimates I use in my research. Working with TACC staff to run my code in R has also been pivotal to what I've been able to accomplish," Svensen said.
"We look forward to continue working with Dr. Svensen and will leverage this relationship to further awareness of high-performance computing and how it can be harnessed to enhance research efforts — even by ‘non-programmers'."Once Svensen attained the annual measures of party polarization, he could defend his theory that spending is an important reason that party polarization has increased in recent years.
"Nearly everything government touches revolves around spending. I'm arguing that both parties are fighting over how to prioritize spending," Svensen said. "I have graphs that show polarization — as polarization moves up, changes in federal spending moves the same way."
Svensen argues that the shrinking discretionary fund, due to programs like social security, welfare, and Medicaid, cause Republicans and Democrats to battle over a decreasing part of the discretionary spending pie. He's also working to use the polarization data to monitor how ideology scores change, allowing him to see whether legislators become more or less conservative over time.
A Case for Change
As the only researcher in the government department using supercomputing resources, Svensen is passionate about increasing usage among social scientists, and hopes he can be a mentor for others.
"TACC is one of the most valuable resources that people of the university should be more aware of," Svensen said. "In the social sciences, it seems like we've exhausted everything in small data. With big data and data analytics, you need high processing power from supercomputers, people just need to figure out how to use it."
"Working with TACC staff to run my code in R has also been pivotal to what I've been able to accomplish."Working with TACC helped Svensen complete his dissertation in 2014, "Reconceptualizing Divided Government," and will support him in completing other research papers for journal submission. Although one of the main venues of his research is in academic circles, Svensen believes the most important part of his research is educating the new generation of voters and college students.
"I hope that my research educates students on what constitutes conflict, so when they leave college, they can better understand the fight and can make more informed decisions in voting, rather than just falling prey to campaign advertisements," Svensen said. "It will definitely be great when I complete my projects and receive acknowledgment, but if students can learn something from my research, that is just as important to me."
