Congratulations to Jenna Bednar, who has just been appointed inaugural Faculty Director of UMICH Votes and Democratic Engagement!

UMICH Votes is a non-partisan campus coalition whose mission is to improve voting accessibility, foster the confidence necessary to navigate the voting process successfully and help students understand why their votes matter for students of all three University of Michigan campuses. 

Jenna Bednar is a professor of political science at LSA and a research professor at the Center of Political Studies in ISR. Professor Bednar's research is on the analysis of institutions, focusing on the theoretical underpinnings of the stability of federal states. Generally, her work seeks to answer questions such as: Why does the federal government take advantage of state governments? Why are some federations stable despite frequent episodes of intergovernmental tension? Can the court effectively referee federalism disputes if it makes mistakes or is biased in favor of one government?

Professor Bednar is also interested in constitutions, specifically the potential of constitutional design to affect the behavior of heterogeneous populations with decentralized governmental structures.