DANIEL C. LEWIS

Email: lewisd23@msu.edu
Webpage: www.msu.edu/~lewisd23
Fields: American Politics, Public Policy, Methodology
Dissertation: Majority Rules: Direct Democracy and Minority Rights
Expected Dissertation Defense: December 2007
Committee: Saundra K. Schneider (Chair), William G. Jacoby, Richard C. Hula, Charles Ballard (Economics), Elisabeth R. Gerber (University of Michigan)

Daniel C. Lewis’ research and teaching interests focus on American politics, including state politics, interest groups, political institutions, political participation, public policy and minority politics.  He recently received a Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the Graduate School at MSU for the Fall 2007 semester, and plans to complete his dissertation in December.  Prior to beginning his graduate studies at MSU, Daniel worked in Washington, DC in a media and public relations position for the League of Conservation Voters and held an internship in the office of Representative Maurice Hinchey (NY-22).  He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and History at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 2001. 

His research focuses on how institutions and mass political participation can affect policy outcomes.  To this end he has conducted research on how direct democracy institutions, interest groups, and public opinion can influence state policy outcomes.  He has presented his work in these areas at several conferences, including the annual meetings of the APSA, the MPSA, the SPSA, and the State Politics and Policy Conference.

His dissertation project, Majority Rules: Direct Democracy and Minority Rights, assesses the “tyranny of the majority” critique of direct democracy, and asks whether the rights of minority groups are at higher risk in states with institutions such as ballot initiatives and referenda.  Using a comparative state approach, the study examines several contemporary state policies that affect the rights of minorities, such as same-sex marriage bans, official English laws and hate crimes laws.

In the future, Daniel plans on expanding his examination of direct democracy and minority rights, as well as pursuing research projects on interest groups and elections.  His research agenda includes a study of the counter-majoritarian role that courts may play in direct democracy states, a study on the coalitional behavior of minority interest groups in direct democracy settings, a project on the legislative success and power of state interest groups, and an examination of the impact that legislative behavior has on primary election outcomes.

Daniel’s teaching experience includes a senior-level capstone course on interest group politics and a course on state politics; he is scheduled to teach a course on the legislative process this spring.  He has also led discussion sections of Introduction to American Government under Professor David W. Rohde and served as a teaching assistant for an introduction to regression class at the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research Summer Training Program for Professor Saundra K. Schneider.  Besides these classes, he has teaching interests in campaigns and elections, political parties, participation in democracy, public policy, executive politics, minority politics, research design and methodology.