Thomas H. Hammond

Thomas H. Hammond is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University. He joined the MSU faculty in 1984. He taught at Purdue University for five years before coming to MSU.

Professor Hammond’s main professional interests involve theories of political institutions. More specifically, his research has focused on bureaucratic politics (especially the nature of politics and policymaking in hierarchies), on the impact of multi-institutionalism (such as the separation-of-powers system in the U.S.) on national politics and policymaking, on comparative political institutions, and on theories of Supreme Court decision-making. His second book, Strategic Behavior and Policy Choice on the U.S. Supreme Court (with Chris Bonneau and Reggie Sheehan) was published by Stanford University Press in July 2005. His current projects include a study of how the organizational structure of the U.S. intelligence community has affected its intelligence-gathering capacities and a study of the impact of multi-institutionalism on the internal structures (centralized leadership powers versus decentralized committees) of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. In 2002 Professor Hammond was awarded the Herbert A. Simon Award by the Midwest Public Administration Caucus for “significant contributions to the scientific study of bureaucracy.”

In recent years Professor Hammond has taught graduate courses on organization theory, comparative political institutions (focusing on chief executives, legislatures, and bureaucracies), and the politics of the presidency and the executive branch. His primary undergraduate courses involve bureaucratic politics (with a focus on the institutions involved in military and foreign policy decision-making) and the relationship between politics and economics in democracies.