Crenson, Matthew A. 1943- (Matthew Crenson, Matthew Allen Crenson)

PERSONAL:

Born April 28, 1943, in Baltimore, MD; son of Gus Arthur and Charlotte Eugenie Crenson; married Alene Louise Childs, December 30, 1964; children: Matthew MacGregor, Ethan Jones. Education: Johns Hopkins University, B.A., 1963; University of Chicago, M.A., 1965, Ph.D., 1969.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Townson, MD. Office—Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University, 338 Mergenthaler Hall, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Political scientist, educator, and writer. Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, research fellow, 1968; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, instructor in political science, 1969-69; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, assistant professor, 1969-73, associate professor, 1973-76, professor, then David Bernstein Professor of Political Science, 1976—, associate dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, 1984-87, chairman of the department of political science, 1989. Also member of board of directors of Baltimore Neighborhoods Institute, 1979-85.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Woodrow Wilson fellow, 1963-64; National Opinion Research Center training fellow, 1964-67; Harold Lasswell Prize, 1988.

WRITINGS:

The Un-Politics of Air Pollution; A Study of Non-Decision Making in the Cities, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1971.

The Federal Machine: Beginnings of Bureaucracy in Jacksonian America, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1975.

(With Martin Greenberger and Brian L. Crissey) Models in the Policy Process: Public Decision Making in the Computer Era, Russell Sage Foundation: distributed by Basic Books (New York, NY), 1976.

Neighborhood Politics, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1983.

Building the Invisible Orphanage: A Prehistory of the American Welfare System, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1998.

(With Benjamin Ginsberg) Downsizing Democracy: How America Sidelined Its Citizens and Privatized Its Public, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 2002.

(As Matthew Crenson, with Benjamin Ginsberg) Presidential Power: Unchecked and Unbalanced, Norton (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Matthew A. Crenson is a political scientist whose personal interest in politics and government began on the local level and evolved to include the national arena. He is the author or coauthor of numerous books, from a historical look at the beginnings of federal bureaucracy to an examination of local politics to a scathing critique of the growing power of the U.S. presidency.

In Building the Invisible Orphanage: A Prehistory of the American Welfare System, Crenson examines the changes in America that brought the U.S. welfare system into existence, with a focus on the roots of American social policy concerning child welfare. In the book, the author focuses on child welfare systems in New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Minnesota, and the varied efforts by those states to meet the needs of a growing population of children at the beginning of the twentieth century. Writing on the H-Net Reviews Web site, Susan L. Porter noted that the author "succeeds in communicating the complex moral economy of child welfare work." Porter went on to write in the same review that, "Crenson's comments on contemporary child welfare policy are cogent and his focus on ‘the child-centered origins of welfare’ … is thought-provoking."

Crenson teamed up with Benjamin Ginsberg to write Downsizing Democracy: How America Sidelined Its Citizens and Privatized Its Public. In their book, the authors focus on what they see as a decline of democracy in America. Contrary to a popularly held belief that a disinterested American public is at fault for a loss of democratic values, the authors reflect on how institutional changes have freed a growing elite segment of society from the wishes of the public, while undermining political mobilization. "Crenson and Ginsberg offer blunt criticisms of a range of actions and interactions that they view as problematic," wrote Palma J. Strand in the Nation. For example, the authors criticize the federal government's growing emphasis on switching total responsibility to the public for providing all services in the form of privatization of public services, which they see as emphasizing profit over true public interest. "Writing in well-documented, analytical style, Matthew Crenson and Benjamin Ginsberg … expose the thoroughly corrosive impact of beltway politics on democratic processes and citizen power," wrote Robert Heineman in the Independent Review. Heineman went on to note in the same review: "By documenting the evolving disregard for citizen judgment and influence in national policy circles, this book confirms that the creeping sense of political impotence spreading across the United States is not without foundation." Social Forces contributor Douglas Eichar called Downsizing Democracy "an insightful book."

Crenson once again collaborated with Ginsberg for Presidential Power: Unchecked and Unbalanced, a follow-up to Downsizing Democracy that relates a weakening of a true democratic government and society in America to the growing power of the U.S. presidency. Called "a comprehensive, judicious and even alarming view of a constitutional crisis" by a contributor to Kirkus Reviews, Presidential Power examines the growing imbalance of power within the United States as more and more authority is given to the U.S. President and taken away from the U.S. Congress. According to the authors, this shift in power is a threat to democracy. In the process of making their case that the shift of more power to the executive branch under the leadership of George W. Bush is criminal in nature, the authors provide an historical look at the U.S. presidency, from changes in how the president was selected to the waxing and waning powers of the presidency over the years during times of peace, war, and economic crises. They also delve into what they perceive as the dire consequences of having an overly powerful executive branch of the U.S. government. Jay Freeman, writing in Booklist, commented that the authors "convincingly assert that the decline in … participation in … political life has led to a dangerous power vacuum."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, February, 2002, Peter C. Holloran, review of Building the Invisible Orphanage: A Prehistory of the American Welfare System, p. 228.

Australian Journal of Political Science, June, 2005, Dennis Phillips, review of Downsizing Democracy: How America Sidelined Its Citizens and Privatized Its Public, p. 328.

Booklist, March 15, 2007, Jay Freeman, review of Presidential Power: Unchecked and Unbalanced, p. 7.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, March, 2000, E.W. Carp, review of Building the Invisible Orphanage, p. 1356; July-August, 2003, W.P. Browne, review of Downsizing Democracy, p. 1986.

Independent Review, summer, 2004, Robert Heineman, review of Downsizing Democracy, P. 141.

Journal of American History, December, 2000, Elizabeth Rose, review of Building the Invisible Orphanage, p. 1055.

Journal of Economic Literature, June, 2000, review of Building the Invisible Orphanage, p. 548.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2007, review of Presidential Power, p. 109.

Nation, February 10, 2003, Palma J. Strand, "Forced to Bowl Alone?," review of Downsizing Democracy, p. 25.

Prairie Schooner, fall, 2003, review of Downsizing Democracy, p. 491.

Reference & Research Book News, February, 2003, review of Downsizing Democracy, p. 150; August, 2007, review of Presidential Power.

Social Forces, March, 2004, Douglas Eichar, review of Downsizing Democracy, p. 1207.

Social Service Review, September, 2000, David S. Tanenhaus, review of Building the Invisible Orphanage, p. 474.

ONLINE

H-Net Reviews,http://www.h-net.org/reviews/ (November 26, 2007), Susan L. Porter, "Visible and Invisible Orphanages," review of Building the Invisible Orphanage.

JHU Gazette,http://www.jhu.edu/~gazette/ (August 30, 2004), Glenn Small, "Q&A: Power of U.S. Presidency Is Growing, Poli Sci Profs Say," interview with author.

John Hopkins Magazine,http://www.jhu.edu/~jhumag/ (November 26, 2007), Michael Anft, "The Accidental Pundit," profile of author.