Mark A. Peterson APSA Candidate Statement

Career and Accomplishments

Mark A. Peterson, Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at the UCLA School of Public Affairs, received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.  Prior to UCLA, he held faculty appointments in the Department of Government, Harvard University, and the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and Department of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh.  His publications contribute to a number of fields, including American national institutions overall, presidential-congressional relations, interest groups, public policy, and national health care policy making.  Peterson’s administrative positions have included being Chair of the Department of Public Policy at UCLA and Head Tutor in Government (director of the undergraduate concentration) at Harvard.  For nine years Peterson was the editor of the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, and has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Politics and PS.  Peterson is a long-standing member of four national advisory committees for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF); since 2002 he has chaired the National Advisory Committee for the Scholars in Health Policy Research post-doctoral program.  Formal distinctions include elected membership in the National Academy of Social Insurance, an APSA Congressional Fellowship (legislative assistant to Senator Tom Daschle), an RWJF Investigator Award in Health Policy Research, the APSA Presidency Research Section’s Richard E. Neustadt Award for the best reference on the presidency (shared), the APSA’s E. E. Schattschneider Award, and the Midwest Political Science Association’s Pi Sigma Alpha Award.

Statement of Views

Having attended all but one APSA annual meeting since 1977 and active in several of the Association’s organized sections, I am honored to be considered for the APSA Council, to which I would bring an expansive and inclusive perspective.  As a student or faculty member I have experienced a small liberal arts college and large research universities, representing a mix of public, state-related, and private institutions.  My scholarship, teaching, and service are deeply ensconced in political science but also rest at the intersection of the discipline and public policy, and between the academy and practical applications.  My research incorporates and integrates the diverse conceptual and methodological strengths of political science, ranging from historical narrative to a bit of formal modeling, and joining advanced quantitative analysis with qualitative approaches.  In leadership roles I have always fostered intellectual breadth, social diversity, and mutual respect. That is the kind of broad-based American Political Science Association I would like to help promote.