Orlando on peeking behind the curtain

by Casey Fischl

Anthony Orlando discussed one of his current research projects, When Citizens Peek Behind the Bureaucratic Veil: An Experiment in Shaping Public Opinion, coauthored by Professor Bill Resh and Ph.D. student, Colin Leslie of the Sol Price School of Public Policy. This stage of the project sets out a plan to conduct an experiment testing how Americans form their opinions on decisions made by the Federal bureaucracy. This research was inspired by the decline in trust of the Federal government by the public over the last few decades across the political spectrum. The purpose of conducting this type of experience is to discover which deliberative process appeals most to the general public: in the words of the investigators “technocratic” or “democratic.” That is, does public opinion change based on whether an agency uses expertise or open public opinion to base decisions. Orlando and his coauthors hope to influence communication strategies used by Federal agencies to improve their reputations and citizen buy-in.

Orlando is an Assistant Professor in the Finance, Real Estate, & Law Department at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is a Faculty Affiliate of the Bedrosian Center on Governance and the Public Enterprise at the University of Southern California. He is a contributor to the “Bill of Health” blog at Harvard Law School. His writings have appeared in the Huffington Post, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and the Hazleton Standard-Speaker. He serves as the Managing Partner of the Orlando Investment Group, as well as the Co-Advisor of the Cal Poly Pomona Finance Society. Orlando conducts research at the intersection of business and public policy. He is trained as an applied microeconomist with a focus on housing policy, health policy, and environmental policy.