Bruce Cain

About

Bruce Cain is the Charles Louis Ducommun Professor in the School of Humanities & Sciences at Stanford University. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, at SIEPR, at the Precourt Institute for Energy, and a Professor of Environmental Social Sciences. Cain received his B.A. from Bowdoin College in 1970, a B.Phil. from Oxford University in 1972 as a Rhodes Scholar, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1976. He has taught at Caltech from 1976 to 1989 and at UC Berkeley from 1989 to 2012 before joining Stanford. Cain served as the Director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley from 1990 to 2007 and as the Executive Director of the UC Washington Center from 2005 to 2012. His areas of expertise include political regulation, applied democratic theory, representation, and state politics. Cain has been recognized for his research, teaching, and public service, including election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000 and awards such as the Richard F. Fenno Prize, the Zale Award for Outstanding Achievement in Policy Research and Public Service, and teaching awards at Caltech and UC Berkeley. His recent publications focus on constitutional design, regulatory balance, redistricting, and democracy, and he is currently working on issues related to environmental governance.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Computer Science
• Public administration
• Business
• Public relations
• Economics
• Environmental science
• Political economy

Selected publications

• Communities conditionally support deployment of direct air capture for carbon dioxide removal in the United States

  Communications Earth & Environment · 2024 · 32 citations

  Abstract Direct air capture has gained traction as a method for carbon dioxide removal. How and whether direct air capture can be deployed requires securing social license to operate, and increasingly demands environmental justice and just transition principles. Here we use a nationally representative survey to evaluate public perceptions of direct air capture, paired with focus groups to assess community perceptions across four communities in the United States: Houston, Texas; Monaca, Pennsylva…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Challenge of Externally Generated Collaborative Governance: California’s Attempt at Regional Water Management

  The American Review of Public Administration · 2020 · 21 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Creating successful collaborative governance regimes is difficult, but can be especially hard when collaborations are externally generated by higher levels of government as opposed to self-generated by local agencies and stakeholders due to the lack of spontaneity. We analyze this problem as it applies to California’s Integrated Regional Water Governance Program. Public administration theory indicates that a core element in a successful collaboration is empowering local leaders who share the col…

  PublisherDOI

• Public Perceptions of Collaborative Governance in Transportation Policy

  Political Research Quarterly · 2020 · 19 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Despite the widespread use and extensive studies of collaborative governance in the United States, we still know too little about how the public at large evaluates the formal inclusion of private stakeholders in collaborative decision making. We examine this question by conducting a series of survey experiments about the function, composition, and power of a proposed regional transportation board. The survey results reveal that while our respondents generally favored collaborative governance (i.…

  PublisherDOI

• Baptism by Wildfire? Wildfire Experiences and Public Support for Wildfire Adaptation Policies

  American Politics Research · 2021-06-11 · 18 citations

  article

  In recent years, wildfires have ravaged the landscape in many Western American states, especially California. But will these horrific wildfire experiences increase public support for wildfire adaptation measures? We conducted an individual-level survey in California in 2019. Combining survey data with geocoded information about a respondent’s proximity to wildfire events and exposure to wildfire smoke, we assess whether respondents’ experiences increased support for several wildfire adaptation p…

  PublisherDOI

• Getting bipartisan support for sea level rise adaptation policies

  Ocean & Coastal Management · 2020 · 8 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Roger G. Noll

  23 shared

• John Ferejohn

  17 shared

• Morris P. Fiorina

  15 shared

• Iris Hui

  Stanford University

  14 shared

• Gillian Peele

  13 shared

• Carole J. Uhlaner

  11 shared

• Wendy K. Tam Cho

  University of California, San Francisco

  11 shared

• D. Roderick Kiewiet

  10 shared

Education

• B.A.

  Bowdoin College

  1970

• Other

  Oxford University

  1972

• Ph.D.

  Harvard University

  1976

Awards & honors

• Richard F. Fenno Prize (1988)
• Zale Award for Outstanding Achievement in Policy Research an…
• Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2000)
• Caltech Award for Teaching (1988)
• UC Berkeley Award for Teaching (2003)

Similar researchers at Stanford University

• Jon Krosnick:h-95
• Barry R. Weingast:h-79
• Shanto Iyengar:h-70