Darrell M. West

Darrell M. West
Darrell M. West in 2006
Born	(1954-10-06) October 6, 1954
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Miami University, Indiana University
Occupation	Author, political commentator

Darrell West (born October 6, 1954) is an American author, political scientist, and political commentator. West is the vice president and director of governance studies and director of the center for technology innovation at the Brookings Institution.^[1] He holds the Douglas Dillon Chair in governance studies, and has written about technology policy, mass media, and campaigns and elections in the United States. The spring 2008 semester was his final semester at Brown University after 26 years on the faculty.^[2] He is Editor in Chief of the Brookings technology policy blog, TechTank.^[3]

Life

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.^[1] He taught at Brown University from 1982 to 2008.^[1][2] He was the director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University.^[1]

Career

His book Digital Government is the winner of the Don K. Price award for best book on technology^[4] and his co-authored book Cross Talk won the Doris Graber award for best book on political communications.^[5]

His books include Brain Gain: Rethinking U.S. Immigration Policy (Brookings Institution Press, 2010) (winner of ForeWord Review Book of the Year Award for Political Science), Digital Medicine: Health Care in the Internet Era (Brookings Institution Press,2009; co-authored with Edward Miller), The Next Wave: Using Digital Technology to Further Social and Political Innovation (Brookings Institution Press, 2011), Digital Schools: How Technology Can Transform Education (Brookings Institution Press, 2012), and Going Mobile: How Wireless Technology Is Reshaping Our Lives (Brookings Institution Press, 2015).

His book Billionaires: Reflections on the Upper Crust (Brookings Institution Press, 2014) looks at the 1,645 billionaires in the world today and how "wealthification" is affecting politics and society. It goes inside the world of the ultra-wealthy and examines the role of Sheldon Adelson, Michael Bloomberg, David and Charles Koch, George Soros, Tom Steyer, and Donald Trump, as well as international billionaires around the globe. He argues that the growing political engagement of the supra-wealthy raises important questions about influence, transparency, and government performance.^[6] It was named by the Washington Post as one of the best political books of 2014.

Recently, he was honored by Public Administration Review for having written one of the 75 most influential articles since 1940. This was for his 2004 article "E-Government and the Transformation of Service Delivery and Citizen Attitudes".^[7]

The center that he directs at Brookings examines a wide range of topics related to technology innovation including public sector innovation; digital media and social networking; health information technology; and virtual education. Its mission is to identify key developments in technology innovation, undertake cutting-edge research, disseminate best practices broadly, inform policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels about actions needed to improve innovation, and enhance the public’s and media’s understanding of the importance of technology innovation.

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. The Center that he directs examines a wide range of topics related to technology innovation including governance, democracy, and public sector innovation; policy architecture, legal and Constitutional aspects of technology; digital media and social networking; health information technology; virtual education, and green technology. Its mission is to identify key developments in technology innovation, undertake cutting-edge research, disseminate best practices broadly, inform policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels about actions needed to improve innovation, and enhance the public’s and media’s understanding of the importance of technology innovation.

He has delivered lectures in a dozen different countries around the world, including China, Japan, Russia, Taiwan, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Turkey, Spain, Bahrain, and the United States. He has been quoted in leading newspapers, radio stations, and national television networks around the world.

Books

• Making Campaigns Count (1984)
• Congress and Economic Policymaking (1987)
• Public Opinion in Rhode Island (1994) with Thomas Anton and Jack Combs
• Cross Talk: Citizens, Candidates, and the Media in a Presidential Campaign, (1996) with Marion Just, Ann Crigler, Dean Alger, Tim Cook, and Montague Kern
• The Sound of Money: How Political Interests Get What They Want (1999) with Burdett Loomis
• Checkbook Democracy: How Money Corrupts Political Campaigns (2000)
• Patrick Kennedy: The Rise to Power (2000)
• The Rise and Fall of the Media Establishment (2001) (Chinese edition, Peking University Press, 2010)
• Celebrity Politics, (2002) with John Orman
• Running on Empty: Campaign Discourse in American Elections (2004) co-edited with Sandy Maisel
• Digital Government: Technology and Public Sector Performance (2005)(Chinese edition, 2013)
• Evaluating Campaign Quality: Can the Electoral Process Be Improved? (2007) with Sandy Maisel and Brett Clifton
• Biotechnology Policy Across National Boundaries (2007)
• Air Wars: Television Advertising in Election Campaigns, 1952-2012 Sixth edition(2013)(Japanese edition, 1996)
• Digital Medicine: Health Care in the Internet Era (2009) with Edward Miller
• Brain Gain: Rethinking U.S. Immigration Policy (2010)
• The Next Wave: Using Digital Technology to Further Social and Political Innovation (2011)(Korean translation, Korea National Open University Press, 2013)
• Digital Schools: How Technology Can Transform Education (2012)
• Billionaires: Reflections on the Upper Crust (2014)
• Going Mobile: How Wireless Technology is Reshaping Our Lives 2015

Notes

External links

• Darrell West page at Brown University (http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Taubman_Center/)
• Darrell West homepage (http://www.InsidePolitics.org)
• Darrell West profile at the Brookings Institution