The Study of Mercy: What Political Scientists Know (and Don't Know) About the Pardon Power

Abstract

It is commonly suggested that the pardon power (state and federal) has received little scholarly attention, at least in the discipline of political science. This piece documents such is not the case. A wealth of literature has been produced by political scientists and others commenting in political science journals, from a wild variety of perspectives (normative, political, historical, empirical, statistical, etc.). This piece reviews that literature and attempts to gather together its primary findings and conclusions. It concludes that there is much research to be done, and that political scientists would do well to attend to a classic goal of the discipline: cross-pollination with scholars in other disciplines and professions (law, history, sociology, etc.).

Keywords: president, pardon, pardons, political science, law, clemency, commutation of sentence

JEL Classification: K10, K14