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Fay Lomax Cook
Professor of Human Development & Social
Policy and Political Science
Director and Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research
Northwestern University
PhD, Social Policy, University of Chicago, 1977
flc943@northwestern.edu
Curriculum Vitae
(847) 491-8704
Additional biographical
information
Fay Lomax Cook is director of the Institute for Policy Research
at Northwestern University and professor of human development and
social policy in the School of Education and Social Policy with
an appointment in the department of political science. Her
research focuses on the interrelationships between public opinion
and social policy, the politics of public policy, public deliberation,
and the dynamics of public support for programs for older Americans,
particularly Social Security.
She has been a visiting scholar at Institut d'Etudes Politiques
de Paris (Sciences Po) in 2004-05, president of the Gerontological
Society of America in 2000; a fellow at the Center for Advanced
Study in the Behavioral Sciences in 1997-98; and a visiting scholar
at the Russell Sage Foundation in 1987-88. She has also been a member
of the Expert Panel on Performance Outcome Measurement, U.S. Administration
on Aging; a member of the Ford Foundation's research advisory committee
on Social Welfare Policy and the American Future; a scientific consultant
to the National Institute on Aging; and a member of the North American
Program Committee for the International Congress on Gerontology.
She is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and a member
of the National Academy of Social Insurance.
Current Projects
Is There an Obama Effect? Changes in Political Participation Across Age Groups, 1992-2008. Political commentators claim that there was an “Obama effect” in the 2008 election year in terms of increased political participation and political interest However, few attempts have been made to examine the claim in any detail and to differentiate whether the effect (to the extent that it actually exists) differs by age group. Cook and IPR graduate research assistant Meredith Czaplewski use National Election Studies (NES) data from 1998 to 2008 to go beyond examining voting as a measure of political participation to investigate how other forms of political participation (e.g., persuading others, donating money, attending political events, and displaying candidate support) and political interest (political discussion, campaign interest, and media and Internet usage) changed in 2008 compared to earlier elections.
Public Deliberation and Discursive Capital. Cook recently completed the book Talking Together: Public Deliberation and Political Participation in America with Lawrence Jacobs of the University of Minnesota and Michael Delli Carpini of the University of Pennsylvania. Cook and her colleagues conducted the first-ever nationally representative survey of the extent to which and the ways in which Americans come together to discuss policy issues—what the authors call "discursive participation." They present a comprehensive picture of the role of public dialogue in the United States, as well as an examination of why it is essential to America’s future. From e-mails to forums, the book examines the pervasiveness of civic discourse, revealing who does the talking, why people discuss civic issues, and what influence their talk has. Talking Together also offers insights into fostering the use of public deliberation for political action.
Public Knowledge, Attitudes, and Support for Energy Policy.
Despite an abundance of rhetoric on energy policy from both political
parties, critics maintain that the United States. lacks a national energy
strategy. Part of developing such a strategy lies in understanding
public attitudes about different sources of energy, whether those
opinions change as the public becomes more informed about energy
alternatives, what types of energy policies the public is willing
to support, and what the public is willing to do as far as making
lifestyle choices to meet the long-term energy demands of our society.
Along with IPR political scientist Jamie
Druckman and IPR graduate research assistant Toby Bolsen, Cook
is working on a project to forward this understanding by examining
Americans’ changing knowledge and attitudes about traditional
energy sources, alternative sources of energy, and lifestyle choices
that affect energy production and consumption.
Information, Knowledge, and Confidence in Social Security.
Political trust and confidence remain low by historic standards.
Although existing research suggests that restoring the public's
political trust and confidence requires improved government performance,
the fundamental but unexamined question is whether the public's
faith can be increased by expanding its information and knowledge
about the activities that the government already performs. Using
a large Gallup survey of attitudes toward Social Security, Cook, Jacobs, and Dukohng Kim of Florida Atlantic University examined the impact on the public's knowledge and confidence
of the personal Social Security statements mailed by the Social
Security Administration to all persons who contribute to Social
Security.
Selected Publications
Books
Jacobs, L. R., F. L. Cook, and M. X. Delli Carpini. 2009. Talking Together: Public Deliberation and Political Participation in America. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Cook, F. L., with J. Manza and B. Page, eds. 2002. Navigating
Public Opinion: Polls, Policy, and the Future of American Democracy.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Cook, F. L., with Edith J. Barrett. 1992. Support
for the American Welfare State: The Views of Congress and the Public.
New York: Columbia University Press.
Journal Articles and Chapters
Cook, F .L., L. R Jacobs, and D. Kim. In press, 2009. Trusting what you know: Information, knowledge, and confidence in Social Security. Journal of Politics.
Cook, F. L., and M. Czaplewski. 2009. Public opinion and social insurance: The American experience. In Social Insurance and Social Justice: Social Security, Medicare, and the Campaign Against Entitlements, ed. L. Rogne, C. Estes, B. Grossman, B. Hollister, and E. Solway, 250-78. New York: Springer.
Bolsen, T,. and Cook, F. L. 2008. “Public opinion on energy policy 1974-2006.” Public Opinion Quarterly 72:364-88.
Cook, F. L., with L. Jacobs and M. Delli Carpini. 2007. Who Deliberates?
Discursive participation in America. In Can the
People Govern? Deliberation, Participation, and Democracy, ed. S. Rosenberg, 25-40.
New York: MacMillan.
Cook, F. L. 2005. Navigating pension policy in the United States:
From the politics of consensus to the politics of dissensus about
Social Security. 2005. Tocqueville Review 26(2): 37-66.
Cook, F. L., with M. Delli Carpini and L. Jacobs. 2004. Public
deliberation, discursive participation, and citizen engagement.
In Annual Review of Political Science 7, ed. N. W. Polsby,
315-45. Palo Alto, Calif.: Annual Reviews.
Cook, F. L. 2005. The U.S. election and aging policy: The view
from France. Public Policy and Aging Report 15(1): 17-20.
Cook, F. L., with J. Manza. 2002. A democratic polity? Three views
of policy responsiveness to public opinion in the United States.
American Politics Research 30(6): 630-67.
Cook, F. L., with J. Barabas and B. Page. 2002. Invoking public
opinion: Policy elites and Social Security. Public Opinion Quarterly
66:235-64.
Cook, F. L., with L. Jacobs. 2002. Assessing assumptions about
Americans' attitudes about Social Security: Popular claims meet
hard data. In The Future of Social Insurance, ed. P. Edelman
and D. L. Salisbury, 82-110. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution
Press.
Cook, F. L., with J. Barabas and B. Page. 2002. Policy elites invoke
public opinion: Polls, policy debates and the future of social security
In Navigating Public Opinion: Polls, Policy, and the Future
of American Democracy, ed. F.L. Cook, J. Manza, and B. Page,
141-70. New York: Oxford University Press.
Cook, F. L. 2002. Intergenerational equity. In Encyclopedia
of Aging, ed. D. J. Ekerdt, R. A. Applebaum, K. C. Holden,
S. G. Post, K. Rockwood, R. Schulta, R. L. Sprott, and P. Uhlenberg,
533-36. New York: Springer Publishing Co.
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