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Founding Fellow: Daniel J. Elazar (1934-1999), A prolific scholar and insightful thinker, Daniel Elazar authored, coauthored, or edited 81 books, and had published some 147 academic articles, 201 chapters in books, and 534 other monographs, magazine and newspaper articles, reviews, and the like. Many of his works also were translated into other languages or republished in later years. Among other awards, he received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Section on Intergovernmental Administration and Management of the American Society for Public Administration (1980), the Outstanding Scholar Award (1993) and Outstanding Book Award (1995) from APSA’s Organized Section on Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations, the National Jewish Book Award in 1991, and the Marshall Sklare Award (1994) from the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry. He was twice awarded Guggenheim fellowships and received other fellowships, as well as many grants. Dan had an especially long-term relationship with the Earhart Foundation, which supported the Center for the Study of Federalism. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa (1957) and also received honorary doctorates of Hebrew Letters from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (1981) and from Gratz College, Philadelphia (1993). For more on Daniel Elazar see here.

Robert B. Hawkins, Jr. (1941-2014), a fourth-generation Californian, was a long-time friend and fellow of the Center for the Study of Federalism and a member of the board of directors of CSF Associates: Publius. He was president of the Sequoia Institute, founded in 1973, and president and CEO of the Institute for Contemporary Studies in Oakland, California, which focused primarily on self-governance, federalism, and decentralization. The ICS believed that men and women who control their lives through self-governing institutions live more productive lives. In 1987, he commissioned Denis P. Doyle of the Hudson Institute and David Kearns, CEO of Xerox, to write Winning the Brain Race, an ICS bestseller that helped shape education reform across the country.

Hawkins served on President Ronald Reagan’s Federalism Advisory Commission and, later, as chairman of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations from 1982 to 1993. From 1987 to 1991, he co-hosted the San Francisco public policy television program That’s Politics and a weekly radio show called California Political Review. He served as the director of the American Public Policy Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution. There, he conducted national seminars on such issues as federalism reform, education, environmental policy, local government, and transportation. After serving in the U.S. Army, he spent four years as director of California’s State Office of Economic Opportunity under Governor Reagan. He was one of the youngest appointed department heads in the state’s history.

He earned a Ph.D. in political philosophy from the University of Washington and contributed chapters to No Land Is an Island (1975), The Politics of Planning (1976), and Fairmont Papers (1981).

His other publications include:

  • Hawkins, Robert B., Jr. 2016. “Self-Governance.” In Encyclopedia of American Governance, ed. Stephen L. Schechter. Detroit: Macmillan.
  • Hawkins, Robert B., Jr. ed. 1982. American Federalism: A New Partnership for the Republic.
  • San Francisco: Institute for Contemporary Studies and New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
  • Hawkins, Robert B., Jr. 1978. “Government Reorganization: A Federal Interest.” Publius: The Journal of Federalism 8 (2): 3-12.
  • Hawkins, Robert B., Jr. 1978. “Federal Principles for Government Reorganization.” Publius: The Journal of Federalism 8 (2): 133-140.
  • Hawkins, Robert B., Jr. 1976. Self-Government by District: Myth and Reality. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press.

Ellis Katz (1938-2023) was Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Temple University, where he taught courses in American federalism, constitutional law, and state and local government. He joined the faculty in 1962 and retired in 1998. At Temple, he served as Chair of the Graduate Political Science Program, Director of the General Education Program for Teachers, Associate Dean of the Graduate School, and beginning in 1990 as Coordinator of the Political Science Program at Temple’s suburban Ambler campus.

While at Temple, Ellis was Acting Director of the Center for the Study of Federalism (1977 – 1980). At the Center, he was especially active in programs on constitutional law, Pennsylvania state politics, state education policy, teacher education, and state politics generally. He directed or co-directed various Center programs, including “The United States Constitution: Classic Works and Scholarly Approaches,” Fulbright Summer Institute in Philadelphia funded by the U.S. Department of State (2000); “Federalism and Rights” in Philadelphia funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant (1992); “State Constitutional Law in the Third Century of American Federalism,” sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and Center for the Study of Federalism (1987); the Educational Seminar of Pennsylvania in the late 1970s funded by the Institute for Educational Leadership to study state education policy-making and implementation; and “Utilizing Federalist Principles in Civic Education,” funded by a grant from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) at the National Institute of Education, U.S. Department of Education (1982). He also served as a teaching scholar in various Center institutes for teachers sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Ellis served as Coordinator of the Pennsylvania Educational Seminar. Beginning in the late 1970s he organized teacher seminars sponsored by the Robert A. Taft Institute of Government that brought teachers together with political leaders, journalists, and scholars to discuss issues relating to federalism and state education policy.

Ellis received his BA from Rutgers University in 1960 and his MA and Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1962 and 1966. He also did advanced work at the University of Wisconsin.

He is the author or editor of more than 50 books, scholarly articles, and research reports. His articles have appeared in Publius: The Journal of Federalism, Journal of Public Law, and State Government. His books include:

  • Marbach, Joseph R., Ellis Katz, and Troy E. Smith, eds. 2005. Federalism in America: An Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
  • Katz, Ellis and G. Alan Tarr, eds. 1996. Federalism and Rights. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
  • Elazar, Daniel J. and Ellis Katz, eds. 1992. American Models of Revolutionary Leadership: George Washington and Other Examples. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
  • Katz, Ellis, 1989. Chapters 1, 9, and 10 in U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations. State Constitutions in the American Federal System. Washington, DC: U.S. ACIR, A-113.
  • Katz, Ellis, 1982.American Education: A View From the States. Philadelphia.
  • Katz, Ellis. 1978. Educational Policymaking, 1977- 1978: A Snapshot from the States. Washington, D.C.: Institute of Educational Leadership.

Donald S. Lutz (1994-2024) was Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Houston, where he taught from 1968 to 2014.  He received his B.A. from Georgetown University in 1965 and his Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1969.

His publications include, among others:

  • Lutz, Donald S. 2006. Principles of Constitutional Design. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Lutz, Donald S. 2005. “Why Federalism?” William and Mary Quarterly 61 (3rd series): 582-588.
  • Lutz, Donald S. ed. 1998. Colonial Origins of the American Constitution: A Documentary History. Indianapolis: Liberty Press.
  • Lutz, Donald S. 1998. “The Iroquois Confederation Constitution: An Analysis.” Publius: The Journal of Federalism 28 (2): 99-127.
  • Lutz, Donald S. 1990. “The Intellectual Background to the American Founding.” Texas Tech Law Review 21 (4): 232-248.
  • Lutz, Donald S. 1988. The Origins of American Constitutionalism. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
  • Lutz, Donald S. 1987. A Covenanted People: The Religious Tradition and the Origins of American Constitutionalism. Providence, RI: John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.
  • Lutz, Donald S. 1979. “The Theory of Consent in the Early State Constitutions.” Publius: The Journal of Federalism 9 (2): 11-42.
  • Lutz, Donald S. 1977. “Bernard Bailyn, Gordon S. Wood, and Whig Political Theory.” The Political Science Reviewer (Fall): 111-144.

Stephen L. Schechter (1945-2022) was a Professor of Political Science in the Department of History and Society, at Russell Sage College in Troy, New York, where he taught since 1978 to 2020.  He also directed the Council for Citizenship Education and the undergraduate major in Policy Advocacy and Civic Engagement (PACE). He received his B.A. from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in 1967 and his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh in 1972.

Schechter joined the Center for the Study of Federalism in 1972 where he coordinated international programs and later served as Acting Director of the Center for the Study of Federalism. Over the years, he has worked on various federalism projects with the Center for the Study of Federalism, including the Cities of the Prairie Project, teacher education workshops, and international exchange institutes. With Daniel J. Elazar, he co-founded the Section on Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations of the American Political Science Association, the International Association of Centers for Federal Studies, and the Publius Annual Review.

He served as Editor-in-Chief of the five-volume Encyclopedia of American Governance published by Macmillan (2012-2015). From 1995 to 2010, he directed the international civic education programs Civics Mosaic, Civitas-Russia, and Civitas-Eurasia, graduating as many as 150,000 students a year and training tens of thousands of teachers across Eurasia in cooperation with the American Federation of Teachers and the Teacher’s Newspaper of Russia. In his home state, he has served as Co-Director, New York State Consortium for Civic Learning (2004-2007); Research Director, New York State Commission on the Capital Region (the Regionalization Commission) exploring intergovernmental regionalization policies (1995-1997); and Executive Director of the New York State Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution (1986-1990).

His publications include American Governance (Macmillan, 2015), Exploring Political Ideas: Concepts That Shape Our World (CQ Press, 2010), Roots of the Republic (Madison House; Rowman & Littlefield, 1990), and various books on the political and constitutional history of New York State.

His public service ranged widely. He directed a college-community homeownership program in Troy, New York, raising private-sector funds for dozens of homeownership loans, developed various college-school partnerships in curriculum and professional development, and authored the New York State Education Department’s Core Curriculum for the 12th grade civics course, Participation in Government. Internationally, he served as a Semi-Permanent Adviser to the U.S. Information Agency, and he has traveled for the U.S. Department of State to Bosnia, Iraq, and the West Bank. He received Mongolia’s Presidential Friendship Medal and a special award from Russia’s Citizenship Foundation.

Benjamin R. Schuster earned a Ph.D. in political science from Temple University in 1978. His dissertation was the first update of the research on which The Cities of the Prairie was based. He served as the Assistant Director of CFS and the managing editor of Publius: The Journal of Federalism from 1976 to 1982. For the next five years, he was the communications director for the Majority Whip in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He then spent 25 years as a corporate public affairs executive. His assignments included lobbying state and local governments throughout the United States and heading the Washington, D.C., office of an international chemical company. His teaching experience included a full-time position at the Graduate School of Public Affairs at SUNY-Albany and graduate and undergraduate courses at Temple, St. Joseph’s, and Villanova universities. He is retired and living in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Earl M. Baker was instrumental in founding Publius: The Journal of Federalism, under the direction of Daniel J. Elazar. Dan’s goal at the Center for the Study of Federalism at Temple University was to establish a journal devoted to the study of federalism. When Earl joined the faculty of the Department of Political Science at Temple in 1970, he quickly gravitated to the Center and to working with Elazar. Earl had come to Temple from the American Political Science Association in Washington, D.C., where he had been a staff associate and founding editor of P.S.: Political Science and Politics.

Originally from Pennsylvania, Earl attended the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he earned an A. B. in Political Science. He then served for four years as a naval officer, two years on a destroyer (DD732) and two years as Officer in Charge of the Naval Liaison Group at Joint Command, Fort Ritchie, Maryland. After his naval duty, he earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in Government at American University. While in graduate school, he studied under the noted federalism scholar W. Brooke Graves. He returned to the Philadelphia area to teach at Temple.

Earl was an active associate of the Center for the Study of Federalism and was the lead author, with Bernadette Stevens, Stephen Schechter, and Harlan Wright, of Federal Grants, The National Interest, and State Response, for many years the Center’s most popular publication. He helped found Publius: The Journal of Federalism. He was the journal’s first associate editor and also guest edited a topical issue of Publius in 1975 on “The Suburban Reshaping of American Politics.”

Baker became active in his community, Malvern, and was elected Republican committeeman and then elected to the Chester County Board of Commissioners, on which he served twelve years (1976-1988), including five years as chairman while continuing to teach at Temple.

Earl was then elected to the Senate of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania where he served in from 1989 to 1995. After being at Temple for twenty years, he left the university to serve in the General Assembly. He also served four years as state chairman of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania (1986-1990), member of the Republican National Committee, and an elector in the Electoral College of the United States in 1988. Following his twenty years of public service, Earl served five years as vice president of the Unisys Corporation, marketing and delivering large information systems to cities, counties, and states, and then five years as president of PresbyHomes & Services, a long-term care non-profit organization with twenty-three facilities in the Delaware Valley. Earl then formed Earl Baker Consulting, which serves government relations, marketing, and strategy clients in education, health care, and information technology.

Earl served on numerous boards, commissions, and associations during his years of public service and continues to serve on the Chester County Library Board and the Chester County Chamber of Business and Industry Committee on Government Affairs. He conducts two education programs. One is IMPACT, the training program for legislators of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association; the other is the Executive Leaders Program for business executives, founded by the Pennsylvania Business Council and now carried on by the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry.

Some of his publications and papers include:

Baker, Earl. 2005. Heroes & Hypocrites:  Poems of Politics. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, obtainable from earlbaker.com.

Baker, Earl. 2003. “Federalism, Intergovernmental Relations and Social Services in the United States.” Conference on “Mechanisms of Intergovernmental Relations in Brazil,” 17-18 September, Palacio do Planalto, Brasilia, sponsored by the Secretariat for Federative Affairs of the Civil House, Brazilian Presidency, in cooperation with the Forum of Federations.

Baker, Earl. 1990. Run To Win! How You Can Run a Successful Campaign for State or Local Office. Audio Cassette Program later published as a book and CD set, obtainable from earlbaker.com.

Baker, Earl. “How Governments and Their Vendor-Partners Can Improve Their Business Relationships.” Conference on Technology and Government, Governing Magazine, Seattle, WA.

Baker, Earl, Bernadette Stevens, Stephen L. Schechter, and Harlan Wright. 1974. Federal Grants, The National Interest and State Response:  A Review of Theory and Research. Philadelphia: Center for the Study of Federalism.

Baker, Earl. 1973. “University In-Service Education and the Public Service:  The Intergovernmental Personnel Act of 1970 and Political Science.” In Political Science and State and Local Government. Washington, DC:  American Political Science Association

Baker, Earl. 1972. “University In-Service Education and the Public Service:  The Intergovernmental Personnel Act of 1970 and Political Science.” Conference on State and Local Government, Biloxi, MS.

Contributor, Encyclopedia of American Government, 1973-74.

Baker, Earl M. ed. 1975. “The Suburban Transformation of American Politics,” Special Issue of Publius: The Journal of Federalism 5 (1).

Baker, Earl M. 1975. “The Suburban Transformation of American Politics: The Convergence of Reality and Research.”Publius: The Journal of Federalism 5 (1): 1-14.

Organizer of National Conference. 1973. “The Federal Polity,” and editor of papers under same title, part of a series of conferences titled “Federalism ’76.”