Data Bank

Data Bank OPERA / Banques de données OPERA

The empirical data presented in the CEPEL database come from the O.P.E.R.A. research program (Operationalizing Programmatic Elites Research in America 1988-2010). This "Blanc" program, directed by William Genieys, was funded by the French National Research Agency (250,000 euros) and ran from 2008 to 2012 (OPERA: ANR-08-BLAN-0032). The empirical study focused on the transformation of the structure of US government summits in the national defense and health insurance sectors. It involved the production of 399 biographical sheets and around 200 interviews.

Initially, the survey covered a population of over 3,000 actors in positions of power (i.e. political appointees of the President and congressional staff) from 1988 to 2010 in the health and defense sectors.
To limit the scope of the study to these two vast fields of public action, we retained only those positions of power that were potentially decisive in the processes of two sectoral reforms: the extension of health coverage (i.e. from Clinton to Obama) and D. Rumsfeld's revolution in military affairs (RMA).

The aim of the research was to identify, over a long period of time, changes in the structure of elites potentially involved in the "policy decision making process", and then try to understand their concrete capacity to influence the content and future of reforms.

The list of positions was established with the congressional directories, accessible from the Lexis Nexis database:

(i) For the legislative branch, the Staffers listed in the commissions and sub-commissions related to the area of public policy under study were selected.

(ii) For the executive branch, we have selected the President's advisors on defense and health policy, ministers up to 5 hierarchical levels below them, agency directors and members of the relevant staffs.

Our sociography is based on the reconstruction of individual biographical files by cross-referencing data available in several sources: institutional websites (White House, DOD, DHHS, Congress), Who's Who in America?, Leadership library, First Street, Revolving Doors, Source Watch, Wilkipedia, Lesgistorm, Linked'in, and all other sources available on the web.