Elaine C. Kamarck, Brookings Institution
Elaine C. Kamarck is a senior fellow in the Governance Studies program and the director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution. She is also a lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Kamarck is an expert on government innovation and reform in the United States, OECD countries and developing countries. In addition, she also focuses her research on the presidential nomination system and American politics and has worked in many American presidential campaigns. Kamarck is the author of “Primary Politics: Everything You Need to Know about How America Nominates Its Presidential Candidates.” She is also the author of “How Change Happens: The Politics of U.S. Public Policy” and “The End of Government…As We know it.” She served in the Clinton Administration as a Senior Advisor to the Vice President where she ran the National Performance Review, also known as the “reinventing government initiative.” She has been a member of the Democratic National Committee and the DNC’s Rules Committee since 1997. She has participated actively in four presidential campaigns and in ten nominating conventions – including two Republican conventions.
Statement of Views
Political science has great utility in the world of policy and politics. Whether it is analyzing the implications of policy change, understanding the cultural context of international conflict or interpreting public opinion polls, the discipline has much to offer the staffer or the aspiring politician. As both an academic and a practitioner I believe that for some in the profession there can be a virtuous circle – where academic rigor helps a person succeed in public service and where the experience of public service establish new insights and new paths for research.