Sanford School of Public Policy
Duke University

Research

Rigorous, relevant research is a hallmark of the Sanford School of Public Policy and its faculty. With expertise in a wide variety of fields, the public policy faculty is recognized for research in health policy, media and democracy, education finance and achievement, and many other areas. Recent publications are highlighted here; for additional publications information, you may visit individual faculty web pages or use the links at the top of this page. To find faculty with a particular area of expertise, browse this list of topic areas or search within our faculty directory.

Recent Publications

Does Monitoring Really Assure Free and Fair Elections?

Why do some countries invite election monitoring when candidates clearly intend to cheat? Do foreign election monitors really improve the quality of elections? Judith Kelley spent six years pursing the answers to these questions, which she presents in her book, Monitoring Democracy: When International Election Observation Works, and Why It Often Fails.

Analyzing original data on over 600 monitoring missions and 1,300 elections, Kelley grounds her investigation in solid historical context as well as studies of long-term developments over several elections in fifteen countries. She pinpoints the weaknesses of international election monitoring and looks at how practitioners and policymakers might help to improve them. Demonstrating the power and problems of transnational actors, Kelley crystallizes the tough dilemmas that the international community faces in using international election monitoring to promote democracy and liberal values.

The book was published in March 2012 by Princeton University Press.

Cook Examines Costs and Tradeoffs in Crime Control.

Criminal justice expenditures have more than doubled since the 1980s, dramatically increasing costs to the public. With state and local revenue shortfalls resulting from the recent recession, the question of whether crime control can be accomplished either with fewer resources or by investing those resources in areas other than the criminal justice system is more relevant
than ever.

In Controlling Crime: Strategies and Tradeoffs, Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Philip J. Cook and his co-editors Jens Ludwig and Justin McCrary collected proceedings from a January 2010 National Bureau of Economic Research conference. Among the topics considered are criminal justice system reform, social policy and government policies affecting alcohol and drug abuse, and private crime prevention. Particular attention is paid to the respective roles of both the private sector and government agencies.

The book was published in October 2011 by the University of Chicago Press.

 

Strange Bedfellows: Big-Time Sports and the Academic Enterprise

Scandals in the athletic programs of major universities, especially in football and basketball make national news. With television contracts and sports merchandise the programs earn serious money and spend it on coaches salaries and stadiums. Should this really be part of higher education?

Drawing on new research findings, Sanford Professor Charles Clotfelter takes a fresh look at these issues in his book, Big-Time Sports in American Universities. Rather than being the inconsequential student activity that universities often imply, commercial sports entertainment has become a core function for many universities in a way not found in other countries. Clotfelter presents evidence for a fresh discussion of the values and contributions, the costs and tensions between athletics and academics.

The book was published in May 2011 by Cambridge University Press

Overview of Global Finance and Goverance by Elson

In his new book Governing Global Finance, Anthony Elson, visiting lecturer in public policy studies, examines the evolution of financial globalization and the attempts that have been made at the international level to establish a system of global financial governance to safeguard the functioning of the international financial system. The book focuses on how the international financial architecture has taken the form that it has, and why it was unable to prevent the recent global financial crisis. The book considers reforms that have been proposed to minimize the risk of future financial crises, as well as others that need to be implemented.

The book was published in March 2011 by Palgrave MacMillan.

Brands Traces Latin America’s Violent Cold War History

Sanford Professor Hal Brands chronicles the dark and often gruesome years of political upheaval, guerrilla warfare, superpower domination, and rebellion in Latin America between the late 1940s and the early 1990s. Brands explains the cause of these events and their impacts on Latin America’s development, as well as the key local, national and international players who shaped its Cold War. Addressing traumatic events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, liberation movements, the Cuban Revolution, military coupes, and violent civil wars, the book shows that Latin America’s Cold War was not a technology race like its American counterpart, but a collection of violent political dilemmas.

“An outstanding book, well written and extremely well conceived in its coverage and structure. This is a major contribution to Cold War history, and will undoubtedly become the standard work on Latin America and the Cold War. Brands has produced an important study that provides a real service to readers.”– Odd Arne Westad, author ofThe Global Cold War

The book was published in September 2010 by the Harvard University Press.

Jentleson, Weber Forecast New Era in American Foreign Policy

This 195-page book, The End of Arrogance: America in the Global Competition of Ideas, considers the new, 21st century approaches America must take to maintain its strong stance as a global competitor. The book proposes that the concepts of “free-market capitalism, hegemony, Western culture, peace, and democracy have lost a good deal of their strength.”  Steve Webster, University of California Burkley professor, and Bruce W. Jentleson, Sanford professor, argue that we must view the world with a new outlook, using strategy and making tradeoffs, to compete in the global market of ideas. Instead of using military strategy to dominate other countries, Americans must view the world through the lens of mutuality, finding ways to coexist with and inspire other societies.

"Weber and Jentleson put forward a powerful and provocative view of the coming frontiers for foreign policy- a global competition of ideas. Their arguments pose the right challenge to governments, corporations, and NGOs operating on a global stage, and provide a practical advice for what to do about it."—Janice Stein, Director, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto

The book was published in August 2010 by the Harvard University Press.

Krishna Studies 35,000 Households Worldwide to Explore Pathways of Poverty

In a sweeping review of poverty, Anirudh Krishna, Sanford Professor, proposes that policy makers focus too much on new ideas for lifting people out of poverty instead of coming to terms with why billions of people become poor in the first place. Krishna spent the past decade studying more than 35,000 households and conducting thousands of interviews on four continents. He calls on government officials, economists and others to pay more attention to the everyday lives and ordinary events that underlie poverty.

"Many studies of poverty deal with it as a statistical phenomenon, but this book is different. Krishna is a brilliant scholar who has spent considerable time in the field. He is aware that no panaceas or quick fixes exist, but he develops an ingenious approach to helping people out of poverty. This is a must-read for graduate students and policy makers alike."— Elinor Ostrom, Nobel Laureate in Economics 2009 and Co-director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Political Analysis, Indiana University

The book was published in August 2010 by the Oxford University Press.

 

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