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.