Position
Academic Background  
Sample Courses  
Teaching Philosophy   
Research & Interests   
Notable Academic Appointments & Awards  
Publication Highlights   
             Selected Scholarly Presentations                     

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Position            

• Professor of Political Science
• Director, Public Administration Program

Academic Background         

• Brown University - Ph.D. in Political Science, 1976
• Brown University - M.A. in Political Science, 1972 
• Indiana University - B.A. in Political Science, 1970
• University of Strasbourg, France - Diplome Superiure, French Language and Literature, 1969

Sample Courses Taught at Providence College  

• American Government and Politics
• American Public Policy
• Seminar: Challenges to American Democracy
• Development of Western Civilization (Honors)
• Introduction to Service in Democratic Communities
• Community Service in American Culture

Teaching Philosophy            

Like many other teachers, I have posted on my door a famous quote from W.B. Yeats that succinctly sums up what all teachers should remember:  "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."  What counts in teaching is the difference you can make in what the student knows and an impact will be made only if a fire can be lit.  But how does one light the fire?  I do not think there is a single answer to this question or a single pedagogical approach for lighting fires.  Over my 30 plus years of teaching, I have found a mix of pedagogical approaches and attention to students' individual needs necessary for my students to learn.  To light fires, we need to remember that only a small proportion of student learning occurs in the classroom.  We must shape our classroom activities so that they lead to the reading, reflection, research, and actions that produces the learning after the class (and even college) is over.  My teaching is devoted to providing my students the critical knowledge, skills, and inspiration to participate in the public realm.   If our students take what they learn at PC and only use it for their private benefit, then I believe that we have failed.  To me, successful teaching means that my students are inspired to engage civically and politically on behalf of the common good.  

Research & Interests               

For the past decade writing political science textbooks has dominated my research and writing time.  In 1994, American Democracy in Peril: Seven Challenges to American Democracy was published.  This book has been widely adopted throughout the country for use as either a supplementary or core text in courses in American Government and Politics.  The book identifies ways in which the practice of democracy in the United States fails to live up to the democratic ideals of Americans.  Some of the "challenges" (now totaling eight) include economic inequality, the separation of powers, imperial judiciary, and radical individualism.  I am now finishing work for the 5th edition due out summer of 2006.

This past year I began work on a second text tentatively entitled The Libertarian Illusion which will critique libertarian proposals for policy reform in a variety of issue areas.  These include tax policy, social security, health insurance, "life" policies ranging from abortion to euthanasia, environmental policy and others.  The book will argue that, while appealing within America's individualist culture, libertarian approaches to public policy undermine the common good, promote inequality, and aim to destroy social protections which protect most Americans from life's risks.   Publication from CQ Press is anticipated in 2007.

While engaged in these areas of textbook writing, I have continued my interest in civic education and service-learning pedagogies associated with my connection to PC's Feinstein Institute.  With my colleague Rich Battistoni, I edited the political science volume in a collection of on service-learning in the disciplines published by the American Association of Higher Education in 1997.  In the same vein, I have written articles for the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning - the leading journal in the field.  I plan continued work in this area in the future. 

My newest research interest involves the Catholics and American politics.  This summer I presented a paper at a conference inaugurating the Garavanta Center at the University of Portland entitled "President Bush, the Ownership Society, and the Catholic Understanding of the Common Good".  The paper critiques the libertarian values underlying Bush's "ownership society" from the stand point of Catholic Social Thought.  I intend to pursue further work in this area, looking at Republican economic policies and their impact on recruiting Catholic voters to a permanent Republican governing coalition.

Notable Academic Appointments and Awards

• Acting Director, Feinstein Institute for Public Service, 1993-1994
• Political Science Department Chair, 1984-1990
• Director, Public Administration Program, 1976-1984; 1999-current
• Chair, Committee to Aid Faculty Research, 2000-2004
• Phi Beta Kappa, 1969

Publication Highlights

• American Democracy in Peril: Seven Challenges to America's Future 5th Edition, Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2006. (first edition published in 1994).
• Experiencing Citizenship: Service-learning in Political Science, ed. with Richard  Battistoni, American Association of Higher Education, 1997.
• "The Feasibility of a Comprehensive U.S. Industrial Policy," Political Science Quarterly, Fall 1985, Vol. 100, #3, 1985.
• "Corporatist Policy Making and State Economic Development," Polity Vol XIX, No. 3, Spring 1987.  (co-author with John Carroll and Mark Hyde).
• "The New Federalism Paradox," Policy Studies Journal, Vol. 8, #7, June 1980.
• "Business and State Economic Development," Western Political Quarterly, Spring 1988.  (co-author with John Carroll and Mark Hyde).
• "An Essay on the Institutionalization of Service-Learning: The Genesis of the Feinstein Institute for Public Service", Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, Fall, Vol.  2, (with Robert H. Trudeau), 1995.
• "State Level Perspectives on Industrial Policy:  The Views of Legislators and Bureaucrats," Economic Development Quarterly, Vol. 1, #4, November 1987.  (co-author with John Carroll and Mark Hyde).

Selected Scholarly Presentations and Activities

• "President Bush, the Ownership Society, and the Catholic Understanding of the Common Good," presented at the Teaching, Faith, and Service: The Foundation of Freedom Conference , University of Portland - Garaventa Center, Portland, Oregon, June 2-4, 2005.
• Organizer and presenter, Pre-conference Short Course: "Getting a Job at a Teaching-focused Private liberal Arts College and Then Succeeding At It", American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, August 27-31, 2003.
• Member, RI Commission on National and Community Service, 1994-2000.
• Participant, CIEE International Faculty Development Seminar: "The United States of Europe:  Beyond 1992," Maastricht, Netherlands & Brussels, Belgium, January 2-8, 1994.
• Participant in a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar for College Teachers on "Modern French Politics" under the direction of Professor Bernard E. Brown,
  held at the Instituted'Etudes Politiques, Paris, France, June 13-August 4, 1989.
• Participant in a seminar on "The Constitution and the New Deal" conducted by Professor William E. Leuchtenburg, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hills, NC, June 25-29, 1984.  This seminar is one of the "Project '87" seminars sponsored by the American Political Science Association and the American Historical Association.

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