Consortium on Collaborative Governance featuring Joerg Raab, Tilburg University, The Netherlands Despite the ever-increasing importance of networks as a societal phenomenon, network researchers in business, public management, and health care…
Bedrosian Center Posts
Governance Salon featuring Michael Neblo, Ohio State University Participatory democrats often criticize deliberative democracy as an inefficient, elitist, technocratic attempt to manipulate the public toward policies favored by elites.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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.