Martha Ann Derthick (June 20, 1933 – January 12, 2015) was an American public administration scholar and academic. She is most known for her work on social security programs, deregulation and federalism.

Biography

Born in

Chagrin Falls, Ohio Chagrin Falls is a village in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States and is a suburb of Cleveland in Northeast Ohio's Cleveland-Akron-Canton metropolitan area, the 19th-largest Combined Statistical Area nationwide. The village was established an ...

, on June 20, 1933, she graduated from

Hiram College Hiram College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Hiram, Ohio. It was founded in 1850 as the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute by Amos Sutton Hayden and other members of the Disciples of Christ Church. The college is nonsectarian and coe ...

in Ohio in 1954. In 1962, she earned a doctorate in political science from

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...

.Emily Langer
Martha Derthick, authority on Social Security, dies at 81
''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

'', January 24, 2015. Retrieved 2016-12-21. She taught and researched at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

between 1964 and 1970,Contemporary Thinkers
Martha Derthick biography
Retrieved 2016-12-23. followed by periods at the Joint Center for Urban Studies of the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

and

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifi ...

. She then joined the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...

, where she was director of the government studies program from 1978 to 1983. Sam Roberts
Martha A. Derthick, Analyst Who Untangled Public Policy, Dies at 81
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', January 29, 2015. Retrieved 2016-12-09. From 1983 to 1999, she was the Julia Allen Cooper professor of government and foreign affairs at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with College admission ...

. Derthick's research involved a focus on the unintended consequences of federal mandates for state welfare programs. Derthick favored federalism over centralized government. Among her best known works was ''Policymaking for Social Security'' (1979). Derthick died in

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen ...

on January 12, 2015, after a series of strokes.

Awards

Among other awards, Derthick was the recipient of a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

, and she was twice awarded the

Louis Brownlow Louis Brownlow (August 29, 1879 – September 27, 1963) was an American author, political scientist, and consultant in the area of public administration. As chairman of the Committee on Administrative Management (better known as the Brownlow Comm ...

Book Award by the National Academy of Public Administration. She was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, ...

in 1982.

Works

*2002 ''Up in Smoke: From Legislation to Litigation in Tobacco Politics'' *2001
Keeping the Compound Republic: Essays on American Federalism
' (Brookings Institution Press) *1999
Dilemmas of Scale in America’s Federal Democracy
' (

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambr ...

) *1990 ''Agency Under Stress: The Social Security Administration in American Government'' *1985 ''The Politics of Deregulation'' (with Paul J. Quirk) *1979 ''Policymaking for Social Security'' *1975 ''Uncontrollable Spending for Social Service Grants''

Biography

Awards

Works

References

Further reading