"What Happened, Why and What It Means" a Conversation with Dave Brady & Bruce Cain

About the speakers

Dave Brady

Brady's research focuses on the American Congress, the party system, and public policy. He has studied the critical congressional realignments of 1860, 1896, and 1932, and has concluded that the rising number of safe seats and the waning importance of presidential coattails have made it much more difficult for a realigning election to take place in the United States. He also has written on Internet voting, the women's movement, regulation of the nuclear industry, apportionment, the Supreme Court handling of abortion, and Korean and Japanese politics. He presently heads a joint project between the Brookings Institution and the Hoover Institution on Polarization in American Politics. 

David Brady began his teaching career at Kansas State University in 1970, from there moved to Houston, Texas, where he taught at both the University of Houston and Rice University, wherein 1981 he was named Autry Distinguished Professor of Social Science. In 1986 he moved to Stanford University with a joint appointment in the Graduate School of Business and Political Science. While at Stanford he has served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the GSB and as Vice Provost for Distance Learning at Stanford. He has twice been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1987. He presently holds the Bowen H. and Janice Arthur McCoy Professorship in Ethics at the Business School and is Deputy Director of the Hoover Institution.
 
Professor Brady's teaching focuses on non-market strategy for corporations and ethical applications in building quality companies. In addition to his Business School teaching, he also teaches an undergraduate course in public policy. He has been awarded several teaching awards including the prestigious Dinkelspiel and Phi Beta Kappa distinguished teacher prizes. 

His research focuses on the ties between elections, institutions (especially legislatures), and public policies. This work includes studies of American political history and comparative studies of Britain, Ireland, Korea, and Japan. His most recent project is as co-director of the Hoover Brookings joint project on political polarization in America.

Bruce Cain

Bruce E. Cain is a Professor of Political Science at Stanford’s School of Humanities and Sciences and the Spence and Cleone Eccles Family Director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West. He received a BA from Bowdoin College (1970), a B Phil from Oxford University (1972) as a Rhodes Scholar, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University (1976).  He taught at Caltech (1976-89) and UC Berkeley (1989-2012) before coming to Stanford.  Professor Cain was Director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley from 1990-2007 and Executive Director of the UC Washington Center from 2005-2012.  He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000 and has won awards for his research (Richard F. Fenno Prize, 1988), teaching (Caltech 1988 and UC Berkeley 2003), and public service (Zale Award for Outstanding Achievement in Policy Research and Public Service, 2000).   His areas of expertise include political regulation, applied democratic theory, representation, and state politics.  Some of Professor Cain's most recent publications include "Redistricting Commissions: A Better Political Buffer?" in The Yale Law Journal, volume 121, 2012; "Congressional Staff and the Revolving Door: The Impact of Regulatory Change," with Lee Drutman, Election Law Journal, 13:1, March 2014.; "Community of Interest Methodology and Public Testimony," with Karin MacDonald, 3 U.C Irvine Law Review. 609 (2013); and Democracy More or Less: America's Political Reform Quandary, Cambridge University Press, 2014. He is currently working on state regulatory processes and stakeholder involvement in the areas of water, energy, and the environment.

Katherine Casey

Katherine Casey is an Associate Professor of Political Economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Her research explores the interactions between economic and political forces in developing countries, with particular interest in the role of information in enhancing political accountability and the influence of foreign aid on economic development.  Her work has appeared in the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy and Quarterly Journal of Economics, among others.  She teaches a course in the MBA program focused on firm strategy vis a vis government in emerging markets.