Frank R. Baumgartner is a highly respected political scientist with a long list of scholarly writings based on his research interests. He was born in 1958 and educated at the University of Michigan (B.A., 1980; M.A., 1983; Ph.D., 1986). Included in his works are political planning, political jurisdictions, legislative behavior, comparative politics, French politics, American national institutions, and research design and measurement. Two of Baumgartner's better known books are Agendas and Instability in American Politics (1993), an account of how public policies can change rapidly even in established institutions; and Survey Research and Membership in Voluntary Organizations (1988), a study… of the political action of lobbying and interest groups. Basic Interests: The Importance of Groups in Politics and in Political Science written with Beth L. Leech, is a work that reviews books and articles about interest groups from 1940 to the present, and examines the methodology of political scientists. The authors conclude that in order to improve the methodology of political scientists better research questions are needed along with more attention to the context of group behavior. Baumgartner is a professor of Political Science at Texas A&M University.
Suzanna L. De Boef is Associate Professor of Political Science at Penn State University. Her research examines the dynamics of public opinion, elections, and public policy and the statistical methods used to analyze them. Her work has appeared in journals such as the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Politics, Political Analysis, and Statistics in Medicine.
Amber Boydstun is assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Davis. She is a coauthor of The Decline of the Death Penalty and the Discovery of Innocence.