Steven J. Balla

headshot of Steven 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 Faculty


Contact:

Office Phone: (202) 994-4811
Fax: (202) 994-7743
475 Monroe Hall, 2115 G St NW Washington DC 20052

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 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 and Nankai University in Tianjin. He is currently working on projects on polarization in public commenting; stakeholder participation in midnight rulemaking; transparency, participation, and responsiveness in Hong Kong policymaking; and the responsiveness of the Chinese government to public participation.


American politics; Chinese politics; regulation; technology and politics; transparency, participation, and responsiveness in the policymaking process

Ph.D., Duke University

 

PSC 2101 - Scope and Methods in Political Science

PSC 3192W - Politics of Regulation

PSC 8229 - Politics and Public Policy

PSC 8286 - Contemporary Research on American Political Institutions 

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, https://doi.org/10.1111/jels.12347.

 

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.

 

2021. “Online Consultation and the Institutionalization of Transparency and Participation in Chinese Policymaking.” With Zhoudan Xie. China Quarterly, Vol. 246, pp. 473-496.

 

2020. “Consultation as Policymaking Innovation: Comparing Government Transparency and Public Participation in China and the United States.” With Zhoudan Xie. Journal of Chinese Governance, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 525-545.