The Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS) is an interdisciplinary organized research unit at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

, located in Moses Hall. It was founded in 1919 as the Bureau of Public Administration. IGS and its affiliated centers spearhead and promote research, programs, seminars and colloquia, training, educational activities and

public service A public service is any service intended to address specific needs pertaining to the aggregate members of a community. Public services are available to people within a government jurisdiction as provided directly through public sector agencies ...

in the fields of

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

and

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...

, with a strong focus on national and California politics. Current IGS research focuses include institutional policy and design,

political reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...

, term limits,

campaign finance Campaign finance, also known as election finance or political donations, refers to the funds raised to promote candidates, political parties, or policy initiatives and referendums. Political parties, charitable organizations, and political a ...

, redistricting, direct democracy, presidential and gubernatorial politics, representative government, the politics of race and ethnicity,

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...

and

globalization Globalization, or globalisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of foreign relation ...

Faculty

IGS has an active interdisciplinary core faculty that draws from several schools and departments. In addition to political science, those disciplines include

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

, public policy,

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

, business, and

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

. The core faculty have published widely on many topics within the areas of institutional design, policy and politics. In addition, several of them have extensive experience working with

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

s, the

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...

, and public commissions, adding a practical perspective to their work on institutional design and reform issues.

Programs and Centers within IGS

The Robert T. Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service

Berkeley Center for Globalization and Information Technology

Building Resilient Regions

IGS Library

Cal-in-Sacramento Fellowship Program

Democracy Camp

John Gardner Public Service Fellowship Program

Research

IGS has demonstrated in recent years an ability to organize and fund path-breaking research in the areas of institutional design and reform. The Constitutional Revision and Blanket Primary projects drew together

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researc ...

s from across the UC system and in several disciplines to analyze important contemporary institutional issues — for instance, how should the California Constitution be reformed? What impact has the change in primary rules had on the political system? In addition, IGS sponsors an extensive array of seminars on topics from game theory to

political history Political history is the narrative and survey of political events, ideas, movements, organs of government, voters, parties and leaders. It is closely related to other fields of history, including diplomatic history, constitutional history, socia ...

, creating an intellectually stimulating environment that facilitates new advances in the

social science Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of so ...

Resources and facilities

Part of the IGS mission is facilitating and disseminating research. IGS has several resources that cannot be found anywhere else in the state that allow it to play this role. Th
IGS Library
is a valuable and unique national collection of fugitive research materials. IGS Press is a small press publisher and has entered into more formal collaborations with the

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facult ...

and other campus social science units. The Institute publishes an occasional magazine called '' The Public Affairs Report'' and a new e-journal called the '' California Journal of Politics and Policy''.

Public service

In addition to conferences and

seminar A seminar is a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some parti ...

s, IGS provides valuable public service to the campus and state of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

in various ways. The Institute regularly hosts visits by

public official An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their ...

s to the campus and provides outreach to state government leaders. The Institute is the key campus resource for information about politics and public policy for members of the press and general public. The IGS Library answers thousands of public queries every year and recently launched a 2.0 website that has received much acclaim for its ability to break down state propositions in a clear and accessible manner.

IGS Directors

Samuel C. May: 1921-1955
Milton Chernin (Acting Director): 1955-1958

Dwight Waldo Clifford Dwight Waldo (September 28, 1913 – October 27, 2000) was an American political scientist and is perhaps the defining figure in modern public administration. Waldo's career was often directed against a scientific/technical portrayal ...

: 1958-1967
Eugene C. Lee: 1967-1988
Nelson W. Polsby: 1988-1999
Bruce E. Cain: 1999-2007

Jack Citrin Jack Citrin is an American political scientist. He is the director of the Institute of Governmental Studies and a professor emeritus of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the co-author and co-editor of several books ...

: 2007–present

References

External links

* {{authority control University of California, Berkeley 1919 establishments in California Research institutes established in 1919