Keith Dougherty specializes in the institutional design of American politics, both the implications of various political institutions and why they were created. His study of their implications includes determining the probability that voting rules, assembly sizes, and quorum requirements adhere to a normative criterion, or sets of criteria, when individual preferences are unknown -- part of the field of social choice. His study of the creation of institutions includes exploring the framers' motivation for adopting the U.S. Constitution. To support his study, he created the Constitutional Convention Research Group (CCRG) to recover delegate positions on all substantive votes at the Convention. The results of his research have been published by Cambridge University Press, the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science and the Journal of Politics, to name a few.

To strengthen the intellectual environment at the University of Georgia, Dougherty organized the American Founding Group (AFG) to discuss issues related to early American politics. The AFG hosts Constitution Day and conferences like The American Constitution: a Conference on the 225th Anniversary of the Ratification.

Dougherty is also a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor (the University of Georgia's highest recognition for teaching excellence), the recipeint of a University of Georgia Creative Teaching Award, and a winner of the Lothar Tresp Outstanding Honors Professor Award. He continues to be a member of the University of Georgia Teaching Academy.

Mailing Address
Department of Political Science
180 Baldwin Hall
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602

Phone (706) 542-2057
Fax  (706) 542-4421
E-mail: [email protected]