American Politics Speaker Series: The Electoral Power of Public Employees

You’re invited to join Vladimir Kogan, Professor of Political Science at Ohio State University, for an American Politics Speaker Series discussion sponsored by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Center for American Political Studies.

Registration is encouraged but not required. This event series will not be recorded.

This event is open to Harvard ID holders only. Lunch will be served.

Abstract

Government employees vote at unusually high rates, but whether such employment is the cause or consequence of civic engagement has long been contested. We offer new evidence on this question using administrative data on school employees linked to voter files. Leveraging variation in the timing and nature of individuals’ transitions into education employment, we show that adults become significantly more likely to vote in school board elections after being hired by traditional public schools — but not when working for charter schools, which are similarly funded yet governed differently. We also show that these effects also extend to employees’ household members, the first such direct evidence of such spillover effects. Yet, in contrast to convention scholarly wisdom about election timing, this mobilized bloc is too small to exert disproportionate influence even in low-turnout, off-cycle local elections. By ruling out this voter-composition channel, our findings suggest that the source of public-employee unions’ electoral success lies elsewhere.

More About the Speaker

Vladimir Kogan is a Professor of Political Science at the Ohio State University and a Senior Research Fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. His research focuses on the intersection of politics and public policy, especially K-12 education. Kogan’s work has been published in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, and Journal of Public Economics, among other journals. He is the author of No Adult Left Behind: How Politics Hijacks Education Policy and Hurts Kids (Cambridge University Press, 2025), which won the Jeff Henig Best Book Award from the APSA Education Politics and Policy Section.

About the Series

The United States is a crossroads. How can Americans connect to each other in deep and meaningful ways, despite holding drastically different political world views? What are the causes and consequences of our nation’s historic levels of partisan polarization? Just how far can democratic backsliding go? The American Politics Speaker Series (APSS) aims to bring together scholars who are doing research on these and other important questions. Hosted jointly with the Center for American Political Studies and chaired by Professors Benjamin Schneer and Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, each session will highlight a scholar whose research is at the forefront of the study of American politics.

Event Details

The Ash Center encourages individuals with disabilities to participate in its events. Should you wish to enquire about an accommodation, please contact our events team at info@ash.harvard.edu prior to the event.