About Me

I am a political scientist and public administration scholar whose work focuses on environmental policy. I am an Associate Professor at the Truman School of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Missouri. Previously, I was employed as an assistant professor at Florida Atlantic University and received my PhD in Political Science from Texas A&M University.

My work stands at the intersection between political science, public administration, and normative political theory, with an emphasis on water policy. My major research focus is on how political and administrative variables shape the implementation and development of environmental policy at the local level in the United States. My current research agenda is aimed at exploring how water utilities of different organizational structures and ownership models differentially respond to the political, climatological, and demographic environment in which they are situated. I have additional interests in public management, democratic theory, urban policy, and environmental justice. My work has been published in, among other outlets, Public Administration Review, Urban Affairs Review, and Policy Studies Journal.

In 2022, Manny Teodoro, Samantha Zuhlke, and I published The Profits of Distrust: Citizen-Consumers, Drinking Water, and the Crisis of Confidence in American Government. with Cambridge University Press. In the book, we argue that declining trust in public institutions drives citizen-consumers to commercial alternatives, such as bottled water. We argue that this has major implications for political participation, the quality of public services, and the future of democratic governance. The book recieved the 2024 Lynton Keith Caldwell Award from the American Political Science Association.

Contact

David Switzer
E314 Locust Street Building
Truman School of Government and Public Affairs
University of Missouri
Office: (573)882-3904
Cell: (410)245-1023
switzerd@missouri.edu

© 2022 David Switzer
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