Consortium on Collaborative Governance Featuring Craig R. Smith, University of Arizona Relational governance is increasingly viewed as an important component in managing exchanges between contracting parties. The presence of extra-contractual and institutional features may enhance the ability to structure exchanges and therefore need to be considered in the contracting decision Read more…
Ronald Reagan’s life, leadership and legacy were analyzed at USC by former members of the Reagan administration, journalists who covered the Reagan era, political scholars and historians at a conference Feb. 1-2 as part of the Ronald Reagan Centennial Celebration. The conference ended with a special plenary at the Reagan Read more…
Leadership and Legacy : An Academic Symposium Multiple Locations Reagan Centennial Symposium Papers and Videos February 1-2, 2011 Executive Leadership from the Inside Out Paper from James Pfiffner, George Mason University : Paradox of President Reagan’s Leadership Presidents must lead a large staff of internal advisors, appointees, and high-ranking civil Read more…
Governance Salon featuring Charles Shipan, University of Michigan In federal systems, governments have the opportunity to learn from the policy experiments (and the potential successes) of other governments. Whether they seize such opportunities, however, may depend on the expertise or past experience of policymakers. Based on an analysis of a Read more…
Governance Salon featuring George Krause, University of Pittsburgh video not available January 13, 2011 Krause’s interest in the budgetary process led him to consider the role of resources in American politics more generally, and this talk provides an overview of this broader trajectory in his research agenda. Selected bibliography: Krause, Read more…
Governance Salon featuring Sean Gailmard, UC Berkeley November 22, 2010 Sean Gailmard, is the Judith E Gruber Associate Professor and Vice Chair of The Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses primarily on problems of accountability in American government, particularly Read more…
Governance Salon, featuring Laurence J. O’Toole, University of Georgia November 8, 2010 Laurence J. O’Toole, is the Margaret Hughes and Robert T. Golembiewski Professor of Public Administration and a Distinguished Research Professor. He has lectured and conducted research widely in North America, Europe, Africa, Australia, and Asia. He is past Read more…
Governance Reform, Accountability, & Transparency October 4, 2010 Co-Sponsored by SoCal ASPA The LA Times reporters who broke the story about the Bell scandal, a USC expert in administrative ethics, the executive director of the state league of cities and a state legislator who introduced reform legislation will gather for Read more…
A Conversation Prompted by Today’s Fiscal Crisis May 3, 2010 The challenges facing local governments in California today have combined in a perfect storm: a half century of growth in state and local government required services and regulatory activities, mirrored by growth in public sector employment, deferred obligations to Read more…
Governance Salon featuring David Lewis, Vanderbilt University April 26, 2010 This paper explains why American presidents politicize some agencies and not others. It focuses on politicization motivated by a presidential desire to change agency policies, particularly in areas central to the president’s agenda, but constrained by the need to not Read more…
SPPD Governance Salon featuring Edward Kleinbard, USC Gould School of Law April 7, 2010 Abstract:Explicit federal outlays are determined through elaborate budget procedural rules (framework laws), but tax expenditures in many respects fall outside these established Congressional procedures. The preparation of the annual federal budget therefore privileges tax subsidies over Read more…
Governance and the Fiscal Crisis a USC SPPD – Critical Issues Forum Nov 12, 2009
Rebuilding and Renewing America – Infrastructure Strategies for the Southwest Megaregion June 19, 2009 The Bedrosian Center on Governance, the Keston Institute for Public Finance and USC, in partnership with America 2050, hosted business, civic, government, and academic leaders on June 19, 2009 at the USC Davidson Conference Center where Read more…
Consortium on Collaborative Governance On April 8-10, 2009 the Consortium on Collaborative Governance held a Doctoral conference at USC’s Ralph and Goldy Lewis Hall. Sixteen doctoral students from across the country gathered to present their research, network and learn from each other as well as established scholars from the three Read more…
The Power of Economic Interests Under Direct versus Representative Democracy
The power of economic interest groups to influence policy outcomes is a common theme in economics and political science. Most theories posit that interest group power arises from the ability to influence elected or appointed government officials, that is, by exploiting the representative part of democracy. This paper examines an unstated implication of these theories, that special interest influence will be weaker under direct democracy, when there are no representatives involved.