Troy Smith

Troy E. Smith is Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University at Hawaii.  His expertise is federalism, intergovernmental relations, and intergovernmental lobbying.  He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University at Albany, SUNY, and his M.A. in international affairs from George Washington University.

Smith’s interest in federalism grew while interning in the U.S. Senate and observing relations between the state’s governor and U.S. senators.  His paper on intergovernmental lobbying was awarded the “Best Paper Presented at the 1998 APSA Meeting from the Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations Section.” His work has appeared in the journals Publius: The Journal of Federalism, The Review of Politics, Congress & the Presidency, and Thinking Skills and Creativity, and in the edited volumes Dialogues on Intergovernmental Relations in Federal Countries (Oxford University Press, 2015), and Intergovernmental Management in the 21^st Century (Brookings Institution Press, 2008), and in various encyclopedia’s.  He authored the Annotated Bibliography on Federalism for Oxford University Press’s Oxford Bibliographies Online (2011) is also a co-author of Federalism in America: An Encyclopedia.

Smith joined the Center for the Study of Federalism’s Board of Trustees in 2016.  He has coordinated the Center for the Study of Federalism’s annual panel at the American Political Science Annual Meeting in recent years.

Smith’s interests also include governance and critical thinking.  At BYUH, he chaired the design and development committees that created a general education course on critical thinking using a blended, hybrid format to positive effect; he also developed a curriculum on governance.  His teaching and influence on students has been recognized with multiple awards.

His publications include, among others:

Smith, Troy Ellis, Paul S. Rama, and Joel R. Helms. 2018. “Teaching Critical Thinking in a GE Class: A Flipped Model.” Thinking Skills and Creativity 28 (June): 73-83.

Smith, Troy Ellis. 2017. “A Compound Republic – If You Can Keep It: Martha Derthick’s Empiricism and the Value of Federalism.” Publius: The Journal of Federalism 47 (Spring): 153-170.

Smith, Troy Ellis. 2015. “Intergovernmental Relations in the United States.” In Dialogues on Intergovernmental Relations in Federal Countries, ed. by Cheryl Saunders, JoHanne Poirier and John Kincaid. Oxford University Press.

Smith, Troy Ellis. 2011. “Federalism: An Annotated Bibliography.” In Oxford Bibliographies Online: Political Science, ed. Richard Valelly. New York: Oxford University Press, November 29.

Smith, Troy Ellis. 2008. “Intergovernmental Lobbying: How Opportunistic Actors Create a Less Structured and Balanced Federal System.” In Intergovernmental Management for the 21^st Century, eds. Paul Posner and Timothy Conlan. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2008.

Smith, Troy Ellis. 2007. “Divided Publius: Democracy, Federalism and the Cultivation of Public Sentiment.” Review of Politics 69 (October): 568-598. YOU CAN BUY Here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-politics/article/divided-publius-democracy-federalism-and-the-cultivation-of-public-sentiment/C073C89FDEABA570EE2DB87C92B059D3

Smith, Troy Ellis, Ellis Katz and Joseph R. Marbach, eds. 2005. Encyclopedia of American Federalism, 2-volume set. Greenwood Press.

Smith, Troy Ellis. 2001. “Federalism in the 2000 Election: Competing Visions of America’s Future.” Publius: The Journal of Federalism 31 (Summer): 71-95.

Smith, Troy Ellis. 2000. “Presidential Power vs. Congressional Time: Legislative History in the First Civil War Congress.” Congress & the Presidency 27 (Fall): 149-162.

Smith, Troy Ellis, Dennis Eggett and Mike George. 1999. “State Legislators in Congress: the Implications for Federalism.” In A Selected Bibliography on the State Legislature as an Institution: 1999 Update. Annapolis, MD: Maryland Department of Legislative Services.