David Foster

I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. My curriculum vitae is available here.

I apply formal theory and quantitative methods to questions about American political institutions. In particular, my dissertation uses formal theory to understand presidential unilateral action. The first chapter, which presents an alternative to the first-mover paradigm, is forthcoming in The Journal of Politics. The third chapter, which examines the role of elite messaging and group power in conditioning political backlash, is conditionally accepted at The Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy. In the second chapter, still in progress, I explicate the role of bureaucratic agency in conditioning unilateral action. In subsequent empirical work, I intend to examine the connection between unilateral action and lobbying.

I have a secondary interest in the politics of local public goods, especially housing. The first paper of this agenda, coauthored with fellow PhD student Joseph Warren, is forthcoming at The Journal of Theoretical Politics.

Before starting my PhD, I studied economics and government at Hamilton College, graduating summa cum laude in 2010; I then consulted in New York and Washington, DC on securities and antitrust litigation.