About

Bruce Cain is the Charles Louis Ducommun Professor in the School of Humanities & Sciences at Stanford University. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, at SIEPR, at the Precourt Institute for Energy, and a Professor of Environmental Social Sciences. Cain received his B.A. from Bowdoin College in 1970, a B.Phil. from Oxford University in 1972 as a Rhodes Scholar, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1976. He has taught at Caltech from 1976 to 1989 and at UC Berkeley from 1989 to 2012 before joining Stanford. Cain served as the Director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley from 1990 to 2007 and as the Executive Director of the UC Washington Center from 2005 to 2012. His areas of expertise include political regulation, applied democratic theory, representation, and state politics. Cain has been recognized for his research, teaching, and public service, including election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000 and awards such as the Richard F. Fenno Prize, the Zale Award for Outstanding Achievement in Policy Research and Public Service, and teaching awards at Caltech and UC Berkeley. His recent publications focus on constitutional design, regulatory balance, redistricting, and democracy, and he is currently working on issues related to environmental governance.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Computer Science
• Public administration
• Business
• Public relations
• Economics
• Environmental science
• Political economy
• Demography
• Management
• Law
• Chemistry

Selected publications

• The Demography of Conservative and Liberal Populism in the US

  2025-01-01

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Conclusions

  2025-01-01

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• Murky Waters: The Mixed Legacy of Water Policies, Infrastructure, and Law in California

  Journal of Historical Political Economy · 2025-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Introduction

  2025-01-01

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• Conclusions

  2025-01-01

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• Introduction: The Changing Character of the American Right

  2025-01-01 · 1 citations

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• Author Correction: Communities conditionally support deployment of direct air capture for carbon dioxide removal in the United States

  Communications Earth & Environment · 2024-04-18

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Communities conditionally support deployment of direct air capture for carbon dioxide removal in the United States

  Communications Earth & Environment · 2024 · 32 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Environmental science
  • Computer Science

  Abstract Direct air capture has gained traction as a method for carbon dioxide removal. How and whether direct air capture can be deployed requires securing social license to operate, and increasingly demands environmental justice and just transition principles. Here we use a nationally representative survey to evaluate public perceptions of direct air capture, paired with focus groups to assess community perceptions across four communities in the United States: Houston, Texas; Monaca, Pennsylvania; Bakersfield, California; and Rock Springs, Wyoming. We find conditional support for direct air capture deployment among focus group participants, and majority support for direct air capture deployment among national survey respondents. The most important determinants of project support were procedural justice elements—in particular community involvement in planning and implementation—and anticipated community benefits in the forms of local infrastructure and workforce development, supporting the need to center environmental justice and just transition principles into project planning and implementation. Where concerns over environmental and health implications are strong, direct air capture may not gain local social license to operate, especially in communities with previous negative experiences with industry.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Investing in the Future of Mobility: The Role of Us Local Governments in Building Ev Infrastructure

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Investing in the future of mobility: The role of US local governments in building EV infrastructure

  Energy Policy · 2024-10-18 · 5 citations

  article1st author
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Roger G. Noll

  23 shared

• John Ferejohn

  17 shared

• Morris P. Fiorina

  15 shared

• Iris Hui

  Stanford University

  14 shared

• Gillian Peele

  13 shared

• Carole J. Uhlaner

  11 shared

• Wendy K. Tam Cho

  University of California, San Francisco

  11 shared

• D. Roderick Kiewiet

  10 shared

Education

• B.A.

  Bowdoin College

  1970

• Other

  Oxford University

  1972

• Ph.D.

  Harvard University

  1976

Awards & honors

• Richard F. Fenno Prize (1988)
• Zale Award for Outstanding Achievement in Policy Research an…
• Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2000)
• Caltech Award for Teaching (1988)
• UC Berkeley Award for Teaching (2003)