Bruce E. Cain

Bruce Cain

Bruce E. Cain

  • Charles Louis Ducommun Professor, Humanities and Sciences
  • Director, Bill Lane Center for the American West
  • Professor, Political Science
  • CDDRL Affiliated Faculty

Jerry Yang & Akiko Yamazaki
Environment & Energy Building
473 Via Ortega, First Floor
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-4225

Biography

Bruce E. Cain is a Professor of Political Science at Stanford University and 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 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 “Malleable Constitutions: Reflections on State Constitutional Design,” coauthored with Roger Noll in University of Texas Law Review, volume 2, 2009; “More or Less: Searching for Regulatory Balance,” in Race, Reform and the Political Process, edited by Heather Gerken, Guy Charles and Michael Kang, CUP, 2011; and “Redistricting Commissions: A Better Political Buffer?” in The Yale Law Journal, volume 121, 2012. He is currently working on a book about political reform in the US.

publications

Books
November 2023

Under Fire and Under Water

Author(s)
cover link Under Fire and Under Water
Books
December 2014

Democracy More or Less: America's Political Reform Quandary

Author(s)
cover link Democracy More or Less: America's Political Reform Quandary

In The News

Hoover Tower
Commentary

Is the presidential election already decided? Stanford professors weigh during final month

Stanford professors and students discuss the efficacy of campaign efforts such as the presidential debate.
cover link Is the presidential election already decided? Stanford professors weigh during final month
White House with overlayed American flag
Commentary

Stanford Scholars Discuss What’s at Stake in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election

In a panel moderated by Didi Kuo, Bruce Cain, Hakeem Jefferson, and Brandice Canes-Wrone discussed the structural features of American democracy and addressed the issues, strategies, and stakes central to November’s race.
cover link Stanford Scholars Discuss What’s at Stake in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election
Bruce Cain presented his research during a CDDRL seminar on May 30, 2024.
News

The Challenge of Climate Change in the American West

Bruce Cain argues that the federalist nature of the U.S., along with regional history and idiosyncratic human behavior, have made resolving collective action problems uniquely difficult.
cover link The Challenge of Climate Change in the American West