Anthony DeMattee is a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow for Fundamental Research (SPRF-FR). The NSF Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) and the Law & Science Program (LS) sponsor his current research, which he is conducting while affiliated with the Department of Political Science at Emory University. Using civil society laws as his case, his work studies the politics of state-civil society interactions in developing countries. He has a regional focus on East Africa and the Caribbean.
Awarded three American Political Science Association (APSA) 2021 best dissertation awards in fields of Public Law (Edward S. Corwin Award), Public Administration (Leonard D. White Award), and the Best Dissertation Award in Human Rights, his book-length dissertation, Domesticating Civil Society: How and Why Governments Use Laws to Regulate CSOs, is a historical study that explores the contents, diffusion, and enforcement of laws that regulate civil society organizations (CSOs) in East Africa. Systematically and holistically coding 285 CSO laws enacted between 1872-2019 reveals significant variation within these legal institutions, which he calls "CSO regulatory regimes." His work finds that enacting or not enacting a particular CSO law does not guarantee civil society’s environment will open or close. To truly understand whether a law "helps” or “hinders,” it is necessary to know both the bundle of rules that comprise the law’s contents and understand how the government enforces those rules. In 2020, the National Science Foundation awarded him $148,000 to expand his work to include judicial decisions and national security agencies.
In 2018-2019, he was an Ostrom Fellow and remains affiliated with the Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory & Policy Analysis. He received additional support for his doctoral training and field research from the American Political Science Association, the Association for Research on Civil Society in Africa, and the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action. He completed his Joint Ph.D. in Public Policy from Indiana University, specializing in comparative politics, public policy, and public administration. He also received an M.A. from the Political Science Department at Indiana University and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Awarded three American Political Science Association (APSA) 2021 best dissertation awards in fields of Public Law (Edward S. Corwin Award), Public Administration (Leonard D. White Award), and the Best Dissertation Award in Human Rights, his book-length dissertation, Domesticating Civil Society: How and Why Governments Use Laws to Regulate CSOs, is a historical study that explores the contents, diffusion, and enforcement of laws that regulate civil society organizations (CSOs) in East Africa. Systematically and holistically coding 285 CSO laws enacted between 1872-2019 reveals significant variation within these legal institutions, which he calls "CSO regulatory regimes." His work finds that enacting or not enacting a particular CSO law does not guarantee civil society’s environment will open or close. To truly understand whether a law "helps” or “hinders,” it is necessary to know both the bundle of rules that comprise the law’s contents and understand how the government enforces those rules. In 2020, the National Science Foundation awarded him $148,000 to expand his work to include judicial decisions and national security agencies.
In 2018-2019, he was an Ostrom Fellow and remains affiliated with the Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory & Policy Analysis. He received additional support for his doctoral training and field research from the American Political Science Association, the Association for Research on Civil Society in Africa, and the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action. He completed his Joint Ph.D. in Public Policy from Indiana University, specializing in comparative politics, public policy, and public administration. He also received an M.A. from the Political Science Department at Indiana University and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
