David Lewis
Rebecca Webb Wilson University Professor and University Distinguished Professor of Political Science Vanderbilt University
- Nashville TN
Expert in federal bureaucracy, including agency performance, agency oversight and the political appointment process.
Multimedia
Biography
In 2022, he was appointed to a two-year term as a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States. He is a member of the National Academy of Public Administration and he is a past president of the Southern Political Science Association and Midwest Public Administration Caucus. He has earned numerous research and teaching awards, including the Herbert Simon Award for contributions to the scientific study of the bureaucracy and the Madison Sarratt, Jeffrey Nordhaus, and Robert Birkby awards for excellence in undergraduate teaching.
Before joining Vanderbilt’s Department of Political Science, he was an assistant professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University. He began his academic career at the College of William and Mary, where he was an assistant professor in the Department of Government. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration Review, and Presidential Studies Quarterly. PhD. Stanford University.
Areas of Expertise
Accomplishments
Kenneth J. Meier Award
2016, Presented by the Midwest Political Science Association for the best paper in bureaucratic politics, public administration, or public policy at the annual meeting, 2015. “Controlling Agency Choke Points: Presidents and Regulatory Personnel Turnover,” (with Kathleen Doherty and Scott Limbocker)
Herbert Kaufman Best Paper Award
2017, Presented by the American Political Science
Association (APSA) Section on Public Administration for the best paper presented on a panel sponsored by the Public Administration Section at the APSA annual meeting.
Robert Birkby Award for Teaching Excellence in Political Science
2014
Herbert Simon Award
2015, Presented by the Midwest Public Administration Caucus to honor a scholar who has made a significant contribution to the study of the public bureaucracy.
Madison Sarratt Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
2015, Vanderbilt University
Education
Stanford University
Ph.D.
Political Science
2000
Stanford University
M.A.
Political Science
2000
University of Colorado at Boulder
M.A.
Political Science
1996
University of California at Berkeley
B.A.
Political Science
1992
With high honors and general distinction in scholarship
Affiliations
- Public Administration : Editorial board
- Presidential Studies Quarterly : Editorial board
- American Political Science Association : Member
- Midwest Political Science Association : Member
- Presidency Research Group : Member
Links
Selected Media Appearances
Elon Musk's time machine
Business Insider online
2025-04-21
Perhaps that techno-libertarian vision — of a digitized world without government — is the entire point of DOGE. "You strip government down to remove all the parts of it that are resisting you," says David Lewis, a political scientist at Vanderbilt University, "and rebuild it in a way that makes it, in your view, more efficient and responsive to you." That's actually more authoritarian than libertarian. But it does make government smaller — and weaker. And the weaker government is, the more the powerful can call the shots.
The history of civil service and the impact of Trump’s slashing of the workforce
PBS NewsHour tv
2025-03-14
When Roosevelt takes office, the national government's probably about 500,000 employees. By the time he leaves office, it's well over three million.
In response to the Great Depression, he dramatically expands the role of the national government. These government employees are doing lots of new things. So the federal government's taking new responsibilities in regulating markets and providing social welfare, so we get Social Security and these kinds of things. And it created a conservative backlash.
Breaking down the first month of Trump 2.0
KERA radio
2025-02-21
President Trump signed more than 50 executive orders on his first day in office —the contents of which are already fundamentally changing the federal government. David E. Lewis is the Rebecca Webb Wilson University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Political Science at Vanderbilt University. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss Trump’s first month in office, from tariffs to foreign policy, domestic actions to DOGE, and what it all means to the American people so far.
Trump Tests Legal Limits in Pushing Out Federal Employees
The New York Times online
2025-02-13
David E. Lewis, a Vanderbilt University expert on presidential power, said that the gutting of those panels in particular seemed designed to test the so-called unitary executive theory, which holds that the president wields exclusive control of the executive branch, making laws that give independence to other officials unconstitutional.
How the civil service system changed American government
WBUR radio
2025-01-14
The constitution itself doesn't say much about the bureaucracy. It has a few references to departments or officers, but it doesn't give you any detail about what they should look like or what their structure should be, or how they should be populated or these kinds of things. The way it gets created is through politics.
So it's through political decisions from year to year from party to party. And so the government kind of builds up that way.
If You Can Keep It: The future of the federal workforce
1A radio
2024-11-25
More than 2 million Americans serve as career civil servants in the U.S. federal workforce. President-elect Donald Trump’s team has promised to reduce federal spending in part by cutting government employees. Now, those plans are looking more concrete.
Musk and Ramaswamy Unveil Plan to Overhaul Government
Newsweek online
2024-11-21
David E. Lewis, a professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, told Newsweek that, while presidents should be free to get advice "pretty broadly from inside and outside government," concern arises over potential conflicts of interest emerging from Musk and Ramaswamy's business dealings.
Trump wanted to slash the federal government. But federal agencies are doing just fine.
Washington Post online
2021-10-18
Many people worried that the Trump presidency had undermined the administrative state — the agencies, people and policies that make up the executive branch. Their fears were motivated by the president’s disdain for the administrative state. Donald Trump labeled government scientists, generals and prosecutors variously as part of the “swamp” or the “deep state,” while his early-administration adviser, Stephen K. Bannon declared that one of the administration’s three primary goals was the “deconstruction of the administrative state.”
Here’s why Trump is threatening federal layoffs if Congress won’t shut this agency down
Washington Post online
2019-06-24
Congress and the Trump administration are playing a game of chicken over the fate of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which manages the civilian federal workforce. This past week, Margaret Weichert, the acting head of OPM, threatened to furlough 150 workers if Congress refuses to endorse the Trump administration’s plan to reorganize the agency. Meanwhile, Congress has already written into law limitations on the president’s reorganization efforts and is likely to call the OPM’s bluff on furloughs.
Trump's slow pace of appointments is hurting government -- and his own agenda
Washington Post online
2017-08-03
Six months into his presidency, President Trump has just pulled retired general John F. Kelly away from his position heading Homeland Security to be his White House chief of staff.
Selected Articles
Government Reform, Political Ideology, and Administrative Burden: The Case of Performance Management in the Bush Administration
Public Administration ReviewStéphane Lavertu David E. Lewis Donald P. Moynihan
2013
This article examines how ideological differences between political officials and agencies may have affected the implementation of an ostensibly nonpartisan, government‐wide administrative initiative: the George W. Bush administration's Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) review of federal programs. The analysis reveals that managers in agencies associated with liberal programs and employees (“liberal agencies”) agreed to a greater extent than those in agencies associated with conservative programs and employees (“conservative agencies”) that PART required significant agency time and effort and that it imposed a burden on management resources.
Influencing the Bureaucracy: The Irony of Congressional Oversight
American Journal of Political ScienceJoshua D. Clinton David E. Lewis Jennifer L. Selin
2013
Does the president or Congress have more influence over policymaking by the bureaucracy? Despite a wealth of theoretical guidance, progress on this important question has proven elusive due to competing theoretical predictions and severe difficulties in measuring agency influence and oversight. We use a survey of federal executives to assess political influence, congressional oversight, and the policy preferences of agencies, committees, and the president on a comparable scale.
Presidents and Patronage
American Journal of Political ScienceGary E. Hollibaugh Jr. Gabriel Horton David E. Lewis
2014
To what extent do presidents select appointees based upon campaign experience and connections? The answer to this question has important implications for our understanding of presidential management and political leadership. This article presents a theory explaining where presidents place different types of appointees and why, focusing on differences in ideology, competence, and non‐policy patronage benefits among potential appointees.
Agency Performance Challenges and Agency Politicization
Journal of Public Administration Research and TheoryAbby K Wood, David E Lewis
2017
In this article we evaluate the relationship between political control and bureaucratic performance using information requested by researchers via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and Congress via congressional committee requests. The information requested was the same, and the timing of requests was similar. We find modest evidence of a relationship between agency politicization and a lack of responsiveness to requests for information from the public and Congress.
Elite Perceptions of Agency Ideology and Workforce Skill
The Journal of PoliticsMark D Richardson, Joshua D Clinton, David E Lewis
2017
Perceptions of the policy leanings of government agencies are an important component of an agency’s political environment, and an agency’s political environment can greatly influence how agencies formulate and implement public policy. We use a recent survey of federal executives to measure the perceptions of the ideological leanings of twice as many agencies as previously possible.
