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Matthew Holden

Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Virginia

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About Matthew

Holden was Doherty Professor from 1981 to 2002.  He was President of the American Political Science Association, the Policy Studies Organization, and a Board Member of the Social Science Council.  His primary fields of interest are executive politics and public administration and public policy, and he continues to advocate a strong connection between the content of political science and the worlds of both private and public government.

Holden has been Commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, and has servedat leasteast three Federal advisory commissions dealing with energy and/or environment.

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Contributions

Why Politics of Prosecutorial Discretion Raises Fundamental Issues in American Public Life

Key Findings Brief,

Publications

"Continuity and Disruption: Essays in Public Administration" (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996).

Explores issues in administration as reflected in political theory and discusses the specifics of organization, bureaucratic, and management theory. Considers such concepts as executive leadership and the emergence of administrative law and turns an unblinking eye on the practice of public administration today, buffeted by changes in communications technology and by ethnic diversity.

"Reflections on How Political Scientists (and Others) Might Think about Energy and Policy" in The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy, edited by Robert E. Goodin, Michael Moran, and Martin Rein (The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy, 2008).

Specifies three important factors regarding energy and policy. The first is that energy policy will be greatly influenced by Russia, China, and India in the coming years; the last two being the biggest energy consumers in the world. The second is that energy patterns of the poorest countries of the world will become difficult, unless there are notable economic and technological changes. The third and final factor is that global energy policy will be influenced by climatic events. 

"Inclusion versus Exclusion: Political Institutions and Welfare Expenditures" in The Oxford Handbook of Political Institutions, edited by Robert E. Goodwin (Oxford University Press, 2006).

Discusses implications of political institutions tendancy to exclude.

The Challenge to Racial Stratification (Transaction Publishers, 1994).

Describes the rationale for the creation of American racial stratification, and boldly shows how American intellectuals have helped reinforce that stratification. 

"The Divisible Republic" (Abelard-Schuman, 1973).

Examines race in the American polity.

""Imperialism" in Bureaucracy" The American Political Science Review 60, no. 4 (1966): 943-951.

Examines bureaucratic "imperialism," focusing primarily on the politics of allocation.