Brendon Swedlow

Brendon Swedlow

Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award Recipient

American Politics (Ideology, Values, Political Culture, Public Opinion); Public Law (Constitutional Law; Judicial Policy Making; Comparative Law and Courts; Comparative Environmental, Health and Safety Regulation); Public Policy (Policy Theory, Policy Process Theory, Environmental and Health Policy, Comparative Public Policy, Science and Technology Policy); Politics of Science

Zulauf Hall 107
815-753-1011
bswedlow@niu.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Overview of Scholarly Activity

Brendon Swedlow (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley; J.D., University of California, Hastings) is a professor in the Department of Political Science in the School of Public and Global Affairs, a faculty associate of the College of Law, and a founding faculty associate of the Institute for the Study of the Environment, Sustainability, and Energy. His research is directed toward developing theory, concepts, methods, and evidence that advance the study of American politics, public law, public policy, and the politics of science.

Swedlow is a research associate of the Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation at the London School of Economics and Political Science and has been a visiting professor at the School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University, London, and at the Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen, Norway; a fellow of the Center for Governance at the University of California, Los Angeles; and a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Environmental Solutions at Duke University. He teaches an introduction to law and courts, constitutional law, judicial policymaking, comparative legal institutions, scope and history of political science, and the politics of environmental, health, and safety regulation. Graduate and undergraduate students taking these courses have the opportunity to participate in Swedlow's research. He has won campus-wide teaching and advising awards.

Selected Publications

“A Cultural Theory of the Culture Wars,” (with J. T. Ripberger and M. Yuan), Political Psychology, 2024   

“Explaining Compliance with Regulation of COVID-19 in China and the United States: Cultural Biases, Political Trust, and Perceptions of Risk and Protective Actions,” (with M. Yuan, B. Johnson, and M. Mayorga), Journal of Public Policy, 2024   

"Scale reliability of alternative cultural theory survey measures," (with B. B. Johnson), Quality & Quantity, 2023   

"Chinese cultural biases, value congruence, and support for and compliance with protective policies during the COVID-19 pandemic", (with M. Yuan), Review of Policy Research, 2022    

“Cultural Theory, Rejection of Cultural Bias, and Party Preference,” (with E. Olli), Party Politics, 2022     

“Environmental Concern among Chinese Youth: The Roles of Knowledge and Culture,” (with M. Yuan, J. Zeng, and R. Qi), Environmental Education Research, 2022    

"Cultural Theory's Contributions to Risk Analysis: A Thematic Review with Directions and Resources for Further Research," (with B. Johnson), Risk Analysis, 2021  

"Construct Validity of Cultural Theory Survey Measures,” (with J. T. Ripberger, L-Y. Liu, C. L. Silva, H. Jenkins-Smith, and B. B. Johnson), Social Science Quarterly, 2020   

"Cultural Theory and Cultural Cognition Theory Survey Measures: Confirmatory Factoring and Predictive Validity of Factor Scores for Judged Risk," (with B. B. Johnson and M. W. Mayorga), Journal of Risk Research, 2019   

"Comparing Cultural Theory and Cultural Cognition Theory to Each Other and as Explanations for Judged Risk," (with B. Johnson), Journal of Risk Research, 2019    

"A Cultural Theory and Model of Power Relations," (with M. Favre and M. Verweij), Journal of Political Power, 2019   

"Beyond Liberal and Conservative: Advancing the Study of Judicial Behavior with a Cultural Theory of Political Values," (with R. Robinson), Journal of Law and Courts, 2018   

"Three Cultural Boundaries of Science, Institutions, and Policy: A Cultural Theory of Coproduction, Boundary-work, and Change," Review of Policy Research, 2017  

"Introduction to the Symposium: An Institutional Theory of Cultural Bias, Public Administration and Public Policy," (with P. 6), Public Administration, 2016   

"Judicial Contributions to US National Policy Change since 1945," (with M. Grossmann), Journal of Law and Courts, 2015  

"Advancing Policy Theory with Cultural Theory: An Introduction to the Special Issue," The Policy Studies Journal, 2014  

"Policy Advocacy Coalitions as Causes of Policy Change in China? Assessing Evidence from Contemporary Environmental Politics," (with H. Han and D. Unger), Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, 2014   

"Better Ways to Study Regulatory Elephants," (with J.B. Wiener, J.K. Hammitt, M. Rogers, and P. Sand), European Journal of Risk Regulation, 2013  

"Cultural Coproduction of Four States of Knowledge," Science, Technology, and Human Values, 2012 

"Editor's Introduction: Cultural Theory's Contributions to Political Science," PS: Political Science and Politics, [symposium on A Cultural Theory of Politics], 2011  

"Cultural Surprises as Sources of Sudden, Big Policy Change," PS: Political Science and Politics, [in symposium on A Cultural Theory of Politics], 2011  

 "A Quantitative Comparison of Relative Precaution in the United States and Europe, 1970-2004" (with D. Kall, Z. Zhou, J. K. Hammitt, and J. B. Wiener), in The Reality of Precaution: Comparing Risk Regulation in the United States and Europe, Jonathan B. Wiener, Michael D. Rogers, James K. Hammitt, and Peter H. Sand, eds., Resources for the Future Press, 2011  

 "Reason for Hope? The Spotted Owl Injunctions and Policy Change," Law and Social Inquiry, 2009  

 "Value Preferences and Ideological Structuring of Attitudes in American Public Opinion" (with M. Wyckoff), American Politics Research, 2009  

 "Theorizing and Generalizing about Risk Assessment and Regulation through Comparative Nested Analysis of Representative Cases" (with D. Kall, Z. Zhou, J. K. Hammitt, and J. B. Wiener), Law and Policy, 2009  

"Beyond Liberal and Conservative: Two-Dimensional Conceptions of Ideology and the Structure of Political Attitudes and Values," Journal of Political Ideologies, 2008  

"Using the Boundaries of Science to do Boundary-work among Scientists: Pollution and Purity Claims," Science and Public Policy, 2007  

"Editor's Introduction" to Aaron Wildavsky, Cultural Analysis: Politics, Public Law, and Administration, Brendon Swedlow, ed., Transaction Publishers, 2006  

"Precautionary Regulation in Europe and the United States: A Quantitative Comparison" (with J. K. Hammitt, J. B. Wiener, D. Kall, and Z. Zhou), Risk Analysis, 2005  

"Scientists, Judges, and Spotted Owls: Policymakers in the Pacific Northwest" Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum, 2003  

"Toward Cultural Analysis in Policy Analysis: Picking Up Where Aaron Wildavsky Left Off," Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, 2002  

"Postscript: Aaron Wildavsky, Cultural Theory, and Budgeting," in Aaron Wildavsky, Budgeting and Governing, Brendon Swedlow, ed., Transaction Publishers, 2001  

Contact Us

Department of Political Science
Zulauf Hall 415
815-753-1011
815-753-6302 (fax)

Office Hours

Monday - Thursday
8 a.m. - noon
1 - 4:30 p.m.

Connect with us on