The Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) at Stanford University is pleased to announce today that they are the recipient of a research award from California 100, an ambitious statewide initiative to envision and shape the long-term success of the state. The California 100 research award, along with technical assistance from the Institute for the Future, will enable CDDRL to evaluate current facts, origins and future trends Governance, Media and Civil Society will play in California’s next century. CDDRL’s research will be led by Francis Fukuyama, Mosbacher Director of the CDDRL, and Michael Bennon, Program Manager of CDDRL’s Infrastructure Policy Research Initiative, and will begin this summer.

The research initiative will examine California governance in making key public decisions – specifically how individual citizens, interest groups, and the media are engaged – and result in policy recommendations on how improve the resources available to local news media providers that inform the public, and ways that public agencies can leverage technology or best practices to improve citizen engagement and make public administrative actions more broadly accessible.

The research will be complete by December 2021 and will lead to a set of policy alternatives for the future of California. The policy alternatives will be developed in conjunction with research teams from 12 other issue areas and will be coordinated by Henry Brady, director of research of the California 100 Initiative and former Dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California Berkeley. “We are excited to work with our research partners that are international experts in their issue areas,” Brady noted. “We will not only develop a comprehensive knowledge base on various policy issues, but we will also offer actionable recommendations for the California 100 Commission and the larger public to consider.”

The California 100 Commission is a multi-generational advisory body that will develop recommendations for the state’s future and test those recommendations across a broad set of policy areas by directly engaging Californians. Karthick Ramakrishnan, executive director of the California 100 Initiative, is tasked with assembling and engaging the Commission, and ensuring that the research stream intersects with the initiative’s other activities including advanced technology, policy innovation, and stakeholder engagement.

“From climate change, to aging populations and rapid changes in industry, California will face enormous challenges in the years ahead,” Ramakrishnan noted. “We are fortunate to be able to draw on the deep talent of researchers in California to produce evidence and recommendations that will inform robust public engagement and set the state on a strong, long-term trajectory for success.”

About the California 100 Research Grants

California 100 is a new statewide initiative being incubated at the University of California and Stanford University focused on inspiring a vision and strategy for California’s next century that is innovative, sustainable, and equitable. The initiative will harness the talent of a diverse array of leaders through research, policy innovation, advanced technology, and stakeholder engagement. As part of its research stream of work, California 100 is sponsoring 13 research projects focused on the following issue areas:

• Advanced technology and basic research
• Arts, culture, and entertainment
• Education
• Economic mobility, inequality and workforce
• Energy, environment and natural resources
• Federalism and foreign policy
• Fiscal reform
• Governance, media, and civil society
• Health and wellness
• Housing and community development
• Immigrant integration
• Public safety and criminal justice reform
• Transportation and urban planning
   

About CDDRL

The Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) at Stanford University is an interdisciplinary center for research on development in all of its dimensions: political, economic, social, and legal, and the ways in which these different dimensions interact with one another. We seek to understand how countries can overcome poverty, instability, and abusive rule to become prosperous, just, democratic, and well-governed societies. We also want to analyze the ways in which democracy and development can be threatened by the authoritarian resurgence, technology, populism, and the broader process of globalization.

For more information about California 100, please visit California100.org.