Darrell M. West

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Darrell West (born October 6, 1954) is an author, political scientist, and political commentator. West is the vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution. He has written about campaigns and elections, mass media, and technology policy in the United States. He is widely quoted in newspapers and on radio and television about American campaigns and elections, and media advertising in political races. The spring 2008 semester was his final semester at Brown University after 26 years on the faculty. [1]

He was born in Richmond, Indiana and graduated with a B.A. from Miami University (Ohio) in 1976 and a Ph.D. in political science from Indiana University in 1981. He taught at Brown University from 1982 to 2008. He was the director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University. His book Digital Government is the winner of the Don K. Price award for best book on technology and his co-authored book Cross Talk won the Doris Graber award for best book on political communications.

West has garnered national and international attention for his research on electronic government. Starting in 2000, he has undertaken annual studies on the websites of the 50 states, the leading federal agencies, and the 198 nations around the world. His e-government reports are available online at InsidePolitics.org (http://www.InsidePolitics.org). In recent years, he has lectured about the Internet and technology innovation in a number of countries such as Germany, Japan, Russia, China, Turkey, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, and Korea.

[edit] Books

Air Wars: Television Advertising in Election Campaigns, 1952-2004 (2005)
Digital Government: Technology and Public Sector Performance (2005)
The Rise and Fall of the Media Establishment (2001)
Patrick Kennedy: The Rise to Power (2000)
Cross Talk: Citizens, Candidates, and the Media in a Presidential Campaign, (1996) with Marion Just, Ann Crigler, Dean Alger, Tim Cook, and Montague Kern
Celebrity Politics, (2002) with John Orman
Evaluating Campaign Quality: Can the Electoral Process Be Improved? (2007) with Sandy Maisel and Brett Clifton