Daniel Disalvo: Interest Groups, Police Unions, and American Local Democracy
This event took place on Thursday, February 16, 2023 at 5:30 – 7 p.m in CASE E422. In person and livestreamed.
About the Lecture
Police unions have been part of the interest group landscape of American localities for decades. However, ever since George Floyd's killing by police in Minneapolis in 2020, they have been the subject of national controversy. For some, they protect bad cops, encourage violence against civilians, block reforms that would improve police departments, and undermine public trust in the police. For others, they protect officers doing a tough job, improve police performance by giving officers a say about working conditions, and thereby enhance public trust in the police. This talk will assess our knowledge of the effects of police unionization on American local democracy and provide an analysis of their impact on public trust in the police.
About the Speaker
Daniel Disalvo is professor and chair of political science in the Colin Powell School at the City College of New York–CUNY and a senior fellow at the . His scholarship focuses on American political parties, elections, labor unions, state government, and public policy. He is the author of Engines of Change: Party Factions in American Politics, 1868–2010 (Oxford 2012) and Government Against Itself: Public Union Power and Its Consequences (Oxford 2015). His articles have appeared in Political Science Quarterly, Policy Studies Journal, and American Political Thought among others. Disalvo also writes frequently for popular publications, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Atlantic Monthly, National Affairs, City Journal, American Interest, The Weekly Standard, Los Angeles Times, and the New York Daily News. He was previously the co-editor of and serves on the editorial board of the . He has held visiting appointments at and the CUNY Graduate Center.
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