Welcome to my web page! I am a professor of public policy and political science at Penn State.
I previously served as the first Associate Director of the School of Public Policy at Penn State as we created the school, from 2018-2022, and before that I served as MPA Program Director at the University of South Carolina.
My research focuses mostly on political and economic inequalities, class, redistribution, and related topics.
Here is my Google Scholar Page
Books
Hijacking the Agenda: Economic Power and Political Influence. (with Jana Morgan, Nate Kelly and Peter Enns). 2021. Russell Sage Press. Winner of the 2022 APSA Gladys M. Kammerer Award for the best book on U.S. national policy.
It has long been argued that controlling the agenda is critical to exercising power, but empirical tests are few. We examine all congressional speeches from 1995-2016 (nearly 500 million words) and use case studies to understand how business and the wealthy use "structural" and what we call "kinetic" power (e.g. lobbying and campaign contributions) to shape what appears on the congressional agenda.
The New Economic Populism: How States Respond to Economic Inequality. (with Bill Franko). 2018. Oxford University Press. Winner of the Virginia Gray Award for best book on State Politics and Policy.
We examine how the U.S. states are responding to economic inequality, and why some are while others are not. You can listen to a short podcast on the book here.
Recent Articles (If you need a different paper that you can't access just email me at witko@psu.edu.)
"Technology Threats to Employment, Issues and Party and Candidate Preferences in the U.S." (with Toby Heinrich). Forthcoming at Political Research Quarterly.
"Unions, Class Identification and Policy Attitudes." (with William F. Franko) Journal of Politics.
"The Economic Costs of Democratic Backsliding? Backsliding and State Location Preferences of U.S. Job-seekers." (with Michael J. Nelson) Journal of Politics.
"Technology-Induced Job Loss and the Prioritization of Economic Problems in the Mass Public." (with Toby Heinrich). 2021. Review of Policy Research.
"Policy Positions, Power, and Interest Group-Party Lobby Routines." (with Allern, Kluver, Marshall, Otjes and Rasmussen). Journal of European Public Policy.
"Government Reputational Effects of Covid-19 Public Health Actions: A Job Opportunity Conjoint Experiment." (with Michael J. Nelson). Journal of Behavioral Public Administration.
"Public Support for Higher Taxes on the Wealthy: California's Proposition 30." (with Caroline Tolbert and Cary Wolbers). 2019. Politics and Governance.
I teach courses on public policy, public administration, research methods, and American government, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, primarily in MPA and MPP programs.
My first academic job was at Sacramento State, where I usually taught 7 classes a year. Even though I don't teach as much anymore, I have taught a lot of classes over the years (almost 20 different courses), and I still love it.
Selected Syllabi
Capstone Class (MPP, PPOL 894)
Bureaucracy and Public Policy (MPP, PPOL 805)
Public Policy and Inequality (UG, PLSC 497)
Public Data Analysis (MPA)