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
Journal Articles
October 2015

Transparency and Governance

Author(s)
cover link Transparency and Governance
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

Voter information packets for 2022 midterm elections
Commentary

What to make of the 2022 midterm results and what it might mean for 2024

Some takeaways from the 2022 midterms: surprising, a possible return to normalcy, and a “relief”– of sorts, Stanford scholars say.
cover link What to make of the 2022 midterm results and what it might mean for 2024
Voting booth
Commentary

‘Democracy is on the ballot’: Professors react to midterm election results

As the results of the 2022 Midterm Elections are coming in, Stanford Professors Larry Diamond, Hakeem Jefferson, and Bruce Cain provided their insights on Tuesday night to The Daily.
cover link ‘Democracy is on the ballot’: Professors react to midterm election results
olympia yt photo
News

Former Senator Snowe lays out plans to restore the U.S. Senate

cover link Former Senator Snowe lays out plans to restore the U.S. Senate