Department of Political Science University of Missouri-Columbia College of Arts and Science

Lael R. Keiser

Lael R. KeiserOffice: 303 Professional Bldg.
Phone: 573-882-8282
Email: KeiserL@missouri.edu
CV (pdf)

Lael Keiser (Associate Professor) has been with the Department since 1996. She received her Ph.D. in 1996 from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and specializes in bureaucratic politics and policy implementation. She also has substantive policy interests in social welfare policy and education.

Research Statement
My research explains why individuals working collectively within public bureaucracies implement policies the way they do. I am interested in how the bureaucracy shapes the policy that citizens actually experience as they interact with street-level or front line workers. More specifically, I focus on how decision making processes, administrative controls and political signals influence bureaucratic outputs and how the demographic characteristics of bureaucrats affect administrative policy making.

These interests are being pursued through several different kinds of activities. I am working on a book project that explores how the bureaucracy (the Social Security Administration) has shaped the size of the welfare state through the management of the eligibility determination process of the Social Security Disability program between 1980 and 2005. I also have several projects with various co-authors on how the sex of school administrators, teachers and students affects the kinds and quantity of school discipline public schools engage in and the legitimacy of disciplinary action taken in schools.

Courses Taught

Issues in Public Bureaucracy
Public Policy
Administrative Politics
Research in Administrative Politics

Recent Representative Publications

"The Political Origins of Administrative Appeals: How State Environments and Policies Shape Citizen Demands." With Joe Soss. Political Research Quarterly 59 (1 March): 133-148. 2006.

"Linking Active and Passive Representation for Gender: The Case of Child Sup-port." With Vicky Wilkins. Journal of Public Administration: Research and Theory, 16(1) 87-102: 2006.

"Race, Bureaucratic Discretion, and the Implementation of Welfare Reform." With Peter Mueser and Seung Whan Choi. American Journal of Political Science 48 (2) April: 2004

"Lipstick and Logarithms: Gender, Identity, Institutional Context, and Representative Bureaucracy" with Vicky Wilkins, Kenneth J. Meier and Catherine Holland. American Political Science Review. 96(3) September: 2002.