Political Science Faculty

Michael Hartney

Associate Professor

Biography

Michael Hartney joined the Boston College political science泭faculty in fall 2017. Professor Hartneys main research and teaching interests泭include: state and local politics, interest groups, and public policy. His泭scholarship has been published in leading academic journals such as the American泭Journal of Political Science, the American Political Science Review,泭Perspectives on Politics, and Public Administration Review and泭has garnered coverage in the Economist, New York Times, Washington泭Post, and Wall Street Journal.

In 2022, the University of Chicago Press published his first泭book: How Policies Make Interest Groups: Governments, Unions, and American泭Education. The book explains the rise of teachers unions to their current泭place of status and influence in the United States, detailing how state and泭local governments adopted policies that subsidizedand in turn strengthenedthe泭power of unions in education politics.

At Boston College, Hartney teaches courses on the politics泭of education, environmental policy, and US state and local politics. He is also泭a research affiliate at Harvard Universitys Program on Education Policy and泭Governance (PEPG), and, in 2020-21, a national fellow at Stanford Universitys泭Hoover Institution.泭泭

Prior to academia, Hartney worked as a policy analyst for泭the泭National Governors Association Center for Best Practices. At NGA, he泭provided policy analysis to泭governors on a wide range of K12 school泭reform issues, from teacher and泭principal quality to high school redesign.泭泭Hartney holds a Ph.D. in political泭science from the University of Notre泭Dame and a bachelors degree, also in泭political science, from Vanderbilt泭University.