Jeb Barnes
Research & Practice Areas
Public Law,Public Policy, American Politics, and Mixed-Method Research Strategies
Education
- Ph.D. Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, 2001
- J.D. Law, University of Chicago Law School, 1/1989
- M.A. Political Science, University of California, Berkeley
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Summary Statement of Research Interests
Professor Barnes’ studies the intersection between law, politics and public policy and mixed-method research strategies.
Detailed Statement of Research Interests
My primary research studies law and courts from an “interbranch perspective,” which holds that American politics and policy-making emanate from ongoing interactions among the branches and levels of government. This perspective, I argue, flows from essential features of American government. Most obviously, the U.S. Constitution disperses power among overlapping and diversely representative policy-making forums. The resulting institutional redundancy produces an array of dynamics that include direct confrontations, strategic alliances, and political games of credit claiming and blame shifting. In this system of “separated institutions sharing power,” the central task is not explaining the behavior of any single actor; it is understanding the patterns of shifting relationships among actors across policy areas and over time.
I also publish in the growing field of mixed-method research design, which explores how to combine quantitative and qualitative research methods to study complex phenomena.
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- USC, ASHSS Award, 2006-2007
- USC General Education Teaching Award, 2005-2006
- USC PArent Association, Teaching and Mentoring Award, 2005-2006
- USC Raubenheimer Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, 2005-2006
- Robert Wood Johnson Fellow, 2003