Steven J. Balla
Steven J. Balla
Associate Professor of Political Science, Public Policy and Public Administration, and International Affairs; Co-Director, George Washington Regulatory Studies Center
Full-time
Contact:
Monroe Hall 475
Steven J. Balla received his B.A. in government and economics from Franklin and Marshall College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Duke University. He studies transparency, participation, and responsiveness in policymaking in Brazil, Europe, Greater China, and the United States. He has testified in front of the United States Congress. He has on two occasions served as a consultant to the Administrative Conference of the United States, as well as a Fulbright Scholar at Peking University in Beijing, Nankai University in Tianjin, and Fundação Getulio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro. He is currently working on projects on public commenting on midnight regulations during presidential transitions; transparency, participation, and responsiveness in Hong Kong policymaking; consultative policymaking in the European Union and United States; and measuring government responsiveness to public input during policymaking.
Thursdays 11:15am-12:15pm and by appointment
American Politics; Chinese Politics; Transparency, Participation, and Responsiveness in the Policymaking Process; Regulation; Technology and Politics
PSC 2101 - Scope and Methods in Political Science
PSC 3193W - Politics of Regulation
PSC 8229 - Politics and Public Policy
PSC8286 - Contemporary Research on American Political Institutions
2025. “Notice the Comment?: Chinese Government Responsiveness to Public Participation in the Policymaking Process.” With Andrew Wan, Zhoudan Xie, Yat To Yeung, and Geng Zhai. Governance, Vol. 38, No. 2, https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12901.
2023. “Beyond Republicans and the Disapproval of Regulations: A New Empirical Approach to the Congressional Review Act.” With Bridget C.E. Dooling and Daniel R. Perez. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 472-484.
2023. “The Durability of Governance Reform: A Two-Wave Audit of Notice and Comment Policymaking in China.” With Zhoudan Xie. Regulation & Governance, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 549-569.
2022. “Lost in the Flood?: Agency Responsiveness to Mass Comment Campaigns in Administrative Rulemaking.” With Alexander R. Beck, Elizabeth Meehan, and Aryamala Prasad. Regulation & Governance, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 293-308.
2022. “Responding to Mass, Computer-Generated, and Malattributed Comments.” With Reeve Bull, Bridget C.E. Dooling, Emily Hammond, Michael Herz, Michael Livermore, and Beth Simone Noveck. Administrative Law Review, Vol. 74, No. 1, pp. 95-160.
PhD, Political Science, Duke University
MA, Political Science, Duke University
BA, Government and Economics, Franklin and Marshall College