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Department of Political Science

Douglas B. Harris, Ph.D.

Professor
Douglas Harris - small

Office Hours

Tuesday 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Thursday 12 noon-1:30 p.m.
(or by appointment)

Biography

Prior to coming to Loyola, I had been assistant professor of government and politics and of political economy at the University of Texas at Dallas, visiting assistant professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University, and visiting assistant professor at Colgate University.

Education

  • Ph.D. 1998 Johns Hopkins University, Political Science
  • B.A. 1992 American University, Political Science

Courses Taught

At Loyola, I have taught courses in the Alpha Program, the Honors Program, and now in Messina.  In addition, I have taught a number of upper division courses in American politics.  My course list includes:

  • PS102 American Politics
  • PS314 Public Opinion and American Democracy
  • PS315 American Political Development
  • PS316 American Political Parties
  • PS318 Media and Politics
  • PS325 Introduction to Public Policy
  • PS326 Congress:  The Legislative Process
  • PS327 Congressional Politics
  • PS420 Seminar: American Political Development
  • HN420 Seminar: American Political Development

Publications

In have primary research interests in congressional party leadership and congressional history. I also write on political parties, public opinion, media politics, and the use of archival methods in political science research.

Books

  • Weaponizing Distrust: The Strategic Promotion of Distrust in Government from Reagan to Trump, co-authored with Professor Amy Fried (University of Maine) (under review at Columbia University Press).
  • Choosing the Leader: Goal Salience and Leadership Elections in the U.S. House of Representatives with Matthew N. Green (Yale University Press, forthcoming 2019).
  • The Austin-Boston Connection: Fifty Years of House Democratic Leadership (Texas A&M University Press, 2009), co-authored with Professors Anthony Champagne (University of Texas at Dallas), James Riddlesperger (Texas Christian University), and Garrison Nelson (University of Vermont).
  • Doing Archival Research in Political Science (Cambria Press, 2012), co-edited with Scott Frisch (California State University, Channel Islands), Sean Q Kelly (California State University, Channel Islands), and David C.W. Parker (Montana State University).
  • The Democrats: Documents Decoded.  Santa Barbara, CA:  ABC-CLIO, 2014, with Lonce Bailey (Shippensburg University).
  • The Republicans: Documents Decoded. Santa Barbara, CA:  ABC-CLIO, 2014, with Lonce Bailey (Shippensburg University).

Articles

  • “Donald Trump and the Promotion of Distrust in Government and Institutions” with Amy Fried, Clio: Newsletter of Politics & History 26:1 (2016-2017): 7, 24-6.
  • “The Strategic Promotion of Distrust of Government in the Tea Party Age” with Amy Fried, The Forum 13: 3 (October 2015): 417-443.
  • "Governing with the Polls" The Historian 72:2 (Summer 2010): 321-353, with Amy Fried (University of Maine).
  • "Maine’s Political Warriors: Senators Snowe and Collins, Congressional Moderates in a Partisan Era" The New England Journal of Political Science 4:1 (2010):  95-129, with Amy Fried (University of Maine).
  • "Middlemen No More? Emergent Patterns in Congressional Leadership Selection" P.S. Political Science and Politics 41 (January 2008):  49-55, with Garrison Nelson (University of Vermont).
  • "Goal Salience and the 2006 Race for House Majority Leader" Political Research Quarterly 60:4 (December 2007): 618-630, with Matthew N. Green (Catholic University of America).
  • "Legislative Parties and Leadership Choice: Confrontation or Accommodation in the 1989 Gingrich-Madigan Whip Race" American Politics Research 34: 2 (March 2006):  189-222.
  • "House Majority Party Leaders’ Uses of Public Opinion Information" Congress & the Presidency 32:2 (Autumn 2005):  133-55.
  • "Orchestrating Party Talk:  A Party-Based View of One Minute Speeches in the House of Representatives" Legislative Studies Quarterly 30 (February 2005): 127-141.
  • "The Rise of the Public Speakership" Political Science Quarterly 113 (Summer 1998): 193-212. [Reprinted in Peter J. Woolley and Albert R. Papa, ed., American Politics: Core Argument/Current Controversy 2nd edition (Prentice Hall, 2001), pp. 220-6.]
  • "Dwight Eisenhower and the New Deal: The Politics of Preemption" Presidential Studies Quarterly 27 (Spring 1997): 333-42.

Book Chapters

  • “Anticipating the Revolution:  Michel and Republican Congressional Reform Efforts.” In Frank Mackaman and Sean Q Kelly, eds., Leading the Republican House Minority: The Congressional Career of Robert H. Michel (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, forthcoming, 2019).
  • “Michel as Minority Leader:  Minority Party Strategies and Tactics in the Post-Reform House.” (with Matthew N. Green). In Frank Mackaman and Sean Q Kelly, eds., Leading the Republican House Minority: The Congressional Career of Robert H. Michel (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, forthcoming, 2019).
  • “Rayburn as Leader: Strategic Agency in the Textbook Congress.” In James W. Riddlesperger, Jr., ed., Reflections on Rayburn (Fort Worth, TX: Texas Christian University Press, 2017), pp. 63-87.
  • “Sam Rayburn’s Presidents: Institutional, Party, and Personal Power Relationships.” (with Garrison Nelson). In James W. Riddlesperger, Jr., ed., Reflections on Rayburn (Fort Worth, TX: Texas Christian University Press, 2017), pp. 89-112.
  • “Joseph G. Cannon:  Partisan Majorities and Responsible Democracy” in Lonce H. Bailey and Jerome M. Mileur, eds., In Defense of the Founders Republic: Critics of Direct Democracy in the Progressive Era (Bloomsbury, 2015), pp. 109-130.
  • “Let’s Play Hardball: Congressional Partisanship in the Television Era” in Scott A. Frisch and Sean Q Kelly, eds., Politics to the Extreme: American Political Institutions in the Twenty-First Century (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013), pp. 93-115.
  • “Sack the Quarterback: The Strategies and Implication of Congressional Leadership Scandals” in Alison Dagnes and Mark Sachleben, eds., Scandal!: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Consequences, Outcomes, and Significance of Political Scandals (New York: Bloomsbury, 2014), pp. 29-50.
  • "Behavioral Reality and Institutional Change: Historical Methods for Political Science's Historical-Institutional Turn" in Scott Frisch, Douglas B. Harris, Sean Q Kelly, and David Parker, eds., Doing Archival Research in Political Science, Cambria Press, 2012.
  • “Counting and Classifying Congressional Scandals” in Alison Dagnes and Mark Sachleben, eds., Scandal!: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Consequences, Outcomes, and Significance of Political Scandals (New York: Bloomsbury, 2014), pp. 3-28, with Scott Basinger (University of Houston), Lara Brown (George Washington University), and Jeff Gulati (Bentley College).
  • "Partisan Framing in Legislative Debates" in Brian F. Schaffner and Patrick J. Sellers, eds., Winning with Words: The Origins and Impact of Framing (New York: Routledge, 2010), pp. 41-59.
  • "Recovering History and Discovering Data in the Archives: An Alternative 'Mode of Research' for Congress Scholars" in Glenn Gray, Karen Paul, and Rebecca Johnson Melvin, eds., American Political Archives Reader (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2009), pp. 429-440.
  • "On Red Capes and Charging Bulls:  How and Why Conservative Politicians and Interest Groups Promoted Public Anger" in John R. Hibbing and Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, eds., What is It About Government that Americans Dislike? (Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 157-74, with Amy Fried (University of Maine).
  • "Strategic Partisan Decisions and Blunted National Outcomes: The 1996 United States Senate Elections and Vote" in Harvey Schantz, ed., Politics in an Era of Divided Government: Elections and Governance in the Second Clinton Administration (New York:  Routledge, 2001), pp. 85-104.

Honors, Fellowships, and Awards

  • Winner of the John C. Donovan Prize for Best Paper by a Faculty Member (with Matthew N. Green), Annual Meeting of the New England Political Science Association, New Haven, CT, 2015
  • Executive Council (elected position), Northeastern Political Science Association, 2012-2015
  • Guest Lecturer, "Institute on American Politics and Political Thought," University of Massachusetts, Amherst Civic Initiative, program supported by the United States Department of State, June 2012-2016
  • Program Committee/Section Co-Chairman on "Political Parties, Interest Groups and Social Movements," Northeastern Political Science Association, 2006-2015
  • Lord Baltimore Research Fellowship, Maryland Historical Society, Summer 2009
  • Guest Editor, "Leadership Choice and Party Performance," P.S. Political Science and Politics, January 2008
  • Pi Sigma Alpha Best Chapter Award, chapter advisor, 2006
  • Wye Faculty Fellow, The Aspen Institute Symposium on "Citizenship and the American Polity"
  • Pi Sigma Alpha Best Paper Committee, Southwestern Political Science Association, 2001

Service

Current service

  • Core Advisor
  • Messina faculty
  • Common Text selection committee
  • Ignatian Seminar pilot project
  • Political Science Assessment Coordinator
  • Pi Sigma Alpha, faculty moderator

Past service

  • Strategic Planning Steering Committee
  • Messina Advisory Board and Implementation Committee, co-chair
  • Dean of Undergraduate Studies Advisory Board, chair
  • Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, ex officio
  • Academic Senate (Secretary of the Senate)
  • Center for Humanities Steering Committee
  • Summer Orientation Advisory Committee
  • Faculty Affairs Committee
  • Education for Life
  • Moderator of College Democrats
  • Moderator of Loyola’s Maryland Student Legislature Chapter

News

This and other research has been supported by Loyola’s summer research grant program, the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas, the Carl Albert Congressional Research & Studies Center at the University of Oklahoma, a Morris K. Udall Research Grant from the University of Arizona, the Maryland Historical Society’s Lord Baltimore Fellowship, and several Congressional Research Awards from the Everett McKinley Dirksen Congressional Research Center.

Faculty and Administrative Positions

  • Professor of Political Science, 2015-present
  • Dean of Undergraduate Studies, 2015-2017
  • Academic Co-Director of Messina, 2011-2017
  • Director of Loyola University Honors Program, 2010-2011
  • Chair, Department of Political Science, 2010-2011
  • Assistant Director of Loyola University Honors Program, 2008-2010
  • Associate Professor of Political Science, 2006-2015
  • Assistant Professor of Political Science, 2002-2006