Philip Rocco
Philip Rocco, Ph.D.Marquette University

Wehr Physics Hall, 411

MilwaukeeWI53201United States of America
(414) 288-3296
Curriculum Vitae

Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies

Political Science

Philip Rocco is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science. He is also the co-editor of Publius: The Journal of Federalism. Prof. Rocco's research examines the intersection between federalism, the policymaking process, and the political economy of policy expertise. He teaches courses on American politics, the policymaking process, and the politics of numbers. Prof. Rocco was formerly a postdoctoral associate at the University of Pittsburgh's Health Policy Institute. He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.

Prof. Rocco is completing work on a book manuscript, Counting Like a State (under contract, University Press of Kansas), which examines how conflict and cooperation between federal, state, and local governments shapes the implementation of the United States census. A second book project, Madison’s Engineers: How Policy Science Remade Federalism (under contract, Columbia University Press), will analyze how policy experts reshaped the relationship between the federal government and the states during the latter half of the twentieth century. A third project, supported by a multi-year grant from the Joyce Foundation, focuses on how U.S. cities are using their American Rescue Plan Act funds to support novel community violence interventions. 

Education

Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 2015

Courses Taught

  • POSC 2201 American Politics | Syllabus
  • POSC 4216 Public Policy Analysis | Syllabus
  • POSC 3101 Writing / Argumentation in Pol. Sci.: The Politics of Numbers | Syllabus
  • POSC 6931 American Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations | Syllabus
  • CORE 1929 Methods of Inquiry: Health and Wellbeing 

Publications

Books

  • Béland, Daniel, Philip Rocco, and Alex Waddan. 2016. Obamacare Wars: Federalism, State Politics, and the Affordable Care Act. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. Paperback edition with new preface released in 2023. 

Edited Volumes

  • Zachary Callen and Philip Rocco, eds. 2020. American Political Development and the Trump Presidency. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. 

Journal Articles

  • Rocco, Philip. "Counting Like a State: The Politics of Intergovernmental Partnerships in the 2020 Census." Political Science Quarterly 138, no. 2 (2023): 189-216.
  • Rocco, Philip, and Amanda Kass. "Flexible Aid in an Uncertain World: The Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Program." State and Local Government Review 54, no. 4 (2022): 346-361.
  • Stenberg, Matthew, Philip Rocco, and Safia Abukar Farole. "Calling in “Sick”: COVID-19, opportunism, pretext, and subnational autocratization." Global Studies Quarterly 2, no. 3 (2022): ksac017.
  • Rocco, Philip, Sarah Beck, Daniel Bernard Deida, Kevin Gleeson, Uriel Lopez, Aidan Marick, and Benjamin Porter. "Voice in an asymmetric federation? The US territories as intergovernmental actors." Regional & Federal Studies (2022): 1-24.
  • Béland, Daniel, Shannon Dinan, Philip Rocco, and Alex Waddan. "COVID-19, poverty reduction, and partisanship in Canada and the United States." Policy and Society 41, no. 2 (2022): 291-305.
  • Béland, Daniel, Philip Rocco, Catarina Ianni Segatto, and Alex Waddan. "Trump, Bolsonaro, and the framing of the COVID-19 crisis: How political institutions shaped presidential strategies." World Affairs 184, no. 4 (2021): 413-440.
  • Rocco, Philip, Jessica AJ Rich, Katarzyna Klasa, Kenneth A. Dubin, and Daniel Béland. "Who counts where? COVID-19 surveillance in federal countries." Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 46, no. 6 (2021): 959-987.
  • Rocco, Philip. "Keeping score: the congressional budget office and the politics of institutional durability." Polity 53, no. 4 (2021): 691-717.
  • Béland, Daniel, Gregory P. Marchildon, Anahely Medrano, and Philip Rocco. "COVID-19, federalism, and health care financing in Canada, the United States, and Mexico." Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice 23, no. 2 (2021): 143-156.
  • Béland, Daniel, Shannon Dinan, Philip Rocco, and Alex Waddan. "Social policy responses to COVID‐19 in Canada and the United States: Explaining policy variations between two liberal welfare state regimes." Social Policy & Administration 55, no. 2 (2021): 280-294.
  • López-Santana, Mariely, and Philip Rocco. "Fiscal federalism and economic crises in the United States: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and great recession." Publius: The Journal of Federalism 51, no. 3 (2021): 365-395.
  • Lecours, André, Daniel Béland, Alan Fenna, Tracy Beck Fenwick, Mireille Paquet, Philip Rocco, and Alex Waddan. "Explaining intergovernmental conflict in the COVID-19 crisis: The United States, Canada, and Australia." Publius: The Journal of Federalism 51, no. 4 (2021): 513-536.
  • Rocco, Philip, Daniel Béland, and Alex Waddan. "Stuck in neutral? Federalism, policy instruments, and counter-cyclical responses to COVID-19 in the United States." Policy and Society 39, no. 3 (2020): 458-477.
  • Rocco, Philip. "Direct democracy and the fate of medicaid expansion."  JAMA Health Forum, vol. 1, no. 8, pp. e200934-e200934 (2020). 
  • Béland, Daniel, Philip Rocco, and Alex Waddan. "The Affordable care act in the states: fragmented politics, unstable policy." Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 45, no. 4 (2020): 647-660.
  • Rocco, Philip, and Andrew S. Kelly. "An Engine of Change? The Affordable Care Act and the Shifting Politics of Demonstration Projects." RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 6, no. 2 (2020): 67-84.
  • Béland, Daniel, Michael Howlett, Philip Rocco, and Alex Waddan. "Designing policy resilience: lessons from the Affordable Care Act." Policy Sciences 53 (2020): 269-289.
  • Callen, Zachary, and Philip Rocco, eds. American political development and the Trump Presidency. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020.
  • Kelly, Andrew S., and Philip Rocco. "From ‘trial and error’to major reform: The politics of Medicare demonstration projects." Public Administration 97, no. 3 (2019): 621-638.
  • Béland, Daniel, Philip Rocco, and Alex Waddan. "Policy feedback and the politics of the Affordable Care Act." Policy Studies Journal 47, no. 2 (2019): 395-422.
  • Rocco, Philip, Andrew S. Kelly, and Ann Keller, “Politics at the Cutting Edge: Intergovernmental Policy Innovation in the Affordable Care Act,” Publius: The Journal of Federalism 48 (3, 2018): 425–453.

  • Béland, Daniel, Philip Rocco, and Alex Waddan, “Obamacare in the Trump Era: Where Are We Now? Where Are We Going?,” The Political Quarterly 89 (4, 2018): 687–694.

  • Béland, Daniel, Philip Rocco, and Alex Waddan, “The ACA and the Politics of Policy Feedback,” Policy Studies Journal (2018): https://doi.org/10.1111/ psj.12286 

  • Béland, Daniel, Anahely Medrano, and Philip Rocco, “The Politics of Bottom-Up Social Policy Transfer,” Political Science Quarterly 133 (Fall, 2018): 527–560.

  • Rocco, Philip and Simon Haeder, “How Intense Policy Demanders Shape Post-Reform Politics: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act,” Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law 43 (2, 2018): 271-304.   

  • Rocco, Philip, “The Anti-Analytic Presidency Revisited,” The Forum 15(2, 2017): 363–378.

  • Rocco, Philip, “Informal Caregiving and the Politics of Policy Drift,” Journal of Aging and Social Policy 29 (5, 2017): 413-432.  

  • Jarlenski, Marian, Philip Rocco, Renu Tipirneni, Amy Kennedy, Nivedita Gunturi, and Julie Donohue, “Making Health Policy for Low-Income Populations: An Assessment of Public Participation in a New Medicaid Waiver Process,” Journal of Health Policy, Politics, and Law 42 (6, 2017): 1039-1064.  

  • Rocco, Philip, Andrew Kelly, Daniel Béland, and Michael Kinane, “The New Politics of US Health Care Prices: Institutional Reconfiguration and the Emergence of All-Payer Claims Databases,” Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law 42 (1, 2017): 5–52.

  • Shih-Jiun Shi, Daniel Béland, Philip Rocco, and Alex Waddan, “Paths to Decentralization: Territorial Dynamics and Social Policy in the People’s Republic of China and the US,” Environment and Planning C  (2017), http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1177/2399654417725527 

  • Juleen Rodakowski, Philip Rocco, Maqui Ortiz, Barbara Folb, Sally C. Morton, Richard Schulz, Lu Hu, Sally Caine Leathers, and A. Everette James, “Integrating Caregivers of Older Adult Patients into Discharge Planning to Lower Resource Utilization: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials,” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 65 (8, 2017): 1748-1755. 

  • Béland, Daniel, Philip Rocco, and Alex Waddan, “Obamacare and the Politics of Universal Health Insurance Coverage in the United States,” Social Policy & Administration 50(4, 2016): 428-451.

  • Béland, Daniel, Philip Rocco, and Alex Waddan, “Reassessing Policy Drift: Social Policy Change in the United States,” Social Policy & Administration 50 (2, 2016): 201-218.

  • Rocco, Philip, Walid F. Gellad, and Julie M. Donohue, “Modernizing Medicaid Managed Care:Can States Meet the Data Challenges?,” JAMA 314 (15, 2015):1559–60.

  • Tummers, Lars and Philip Rocco, “Serving Clients When the Server Crashes: How Frontline Workers Cope with E-Government Challenges,” Public Administration Review 75(6, 2015): 817-827.

  • Béland, Daniel, Philip Rocco, and Alex Waddan, “Polarized Stakeholders and Institutional Vulnerabilities: The Enduring Politics of the Affordable Care Act,” Clinical Therapeutics 37 (4, 2015): 720–726.

  • Rocco, Philip. “Making Federalism Work? The Politics of Intergovernmental Collaboration and The PPACA,” Journal of Health and Human Services Administration 37(4, 2015): 412–461.

  • Béland, Daniel, Philip Rocco, and Alex Waddan, “Implementing Health Reform in the United States: Intergovernmental Politics and the Dilemmas of Institutional Design,” Health Policy 116 (Spring, 2014): 51–60.

  • Béland, Daniel, Philip Rocco, and Alex Waddan, “Obamacare, Universal Credit, and the Trilemma of Public Services,” Public Administration Review 74(2, 2014): 142–3.

  • Rocco, Philip and Chloe Thurston, “From Metaphors to Measures: Observable Indicators of Gradual Institutional Change,” Journal of Public Policy 34 (1, 2014): 35–62.

  • Chatfield, Sara, and Philip Rocco, “Is Federalism a Political Safety Valve? Evidence from Congressional Decision-Making, 1960–2005,” Publius: The Journal of Federalism 44 (1, 2014): 1–23.

Book Chapters

  • Rocco, Philip. “Laboratories of What? American Federalism and the Politics of Democratic Subversion,” in Democratic Resilience: Can the US Withstand Rising Polarization?, ed. Robert Lieberman, Suzanne Mettler, and Ken Roberts (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021). 
  • Rocco, Philip.  “Medicaid Expansion: Intergovernmental Reform meets Nationalized Politics,” in Medicare and Medicaid: A Reference Handbook, ed. Greg Shaw (ABC-CLIO, 2020), 126–135.
  • Rocco, Philip. "The Quiet Politics of Medicaid Work Requirements," in Medicaid: Enrollment, Eligibility, and Key Issues, ed. Daniel Lanford (Hauppage, NY: Nova Science Publishers, 2020), 111–140. 
  • Rocco, Philip, and Zachary Callen, “Introduction,” in American Political Development and the Trump Presidency, eds. Zachary Callen and Philip Rocco (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020).  

  • Rocco, Philip. “The Policy State and the Post-Truth Presidency,” in American Political Development and the Trump Presidency, eds. Zachary Callen and Philip Rocco (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020).  

  • Rocco, Philip. “The Quiet Politics of Medicaid Work Requirements,” in Medicaid: Enrollment, Eligibility, and Key Issues, ed. Daniel Lanford (Hauppage, NY: Nova Science Publishers, forthcoming).

  • Rocco, Philip. “Medicaid Expansion: Intergovernmental Reform meets Nationalized Politics,” in Medicare and Medicaid: A Reference Handbook, ed. Greg Shaw (ABC-CLIO, forthcoming).

  • Rocco, Philip. “Wissensproduktion in der RAND Corporation,” in Macht und Geist im Kalten Krieg, Bernd Greiner, Tim B. Müller, Claudia Weber, eds. (Hamburg: Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung, 2011): 301–320.

Reports 

  • Kass, Amanda, Philip Rocco, and Alex Hawley. Replenish, Replace, Repair: How Illinois is Using its ARPA Aid (University of Illinois System, Institute of Government and Public Affairs, 2023). 
  • Kass, Amanda, Philip Rocco, and Isabella Romano. Strengthening Local Government Finances: State and Federal Policies for a Crisis Era (University of Illinois at Chicago, Government Finance Research Center, 2021). 
  • Reinecke, David, and Philip Rocco. The Human Costs of Local Fiscal Crises During COVID-19 (Washington, DC: National League of Cities, 2020). 
  • James, Everette, Meredith Hughes, and Philip Rocco, Addressing the Needs of Caregivers at Risk: A New Policy Strategy (University of Pittsburgh, Health Policy Institute, 2016). 

Honors and Awards

  • APSA Organized Section on Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations, Deil S. Wright Best Paper Award (2022) 
  • Helen Way Klingler Young Scholar Award (2019) 
  • APSA Organized Section on Public Policy: Best Poster on Public Policy Award (2017, shared with Andrew Kelly) 

  • APSA William Anderson Award for best dissertation in the general field of federalism or intergovernmental relations, state and local politics (2016) 

Grants

  • Joyce Foundation, Research Grant (shared with Amanda Kass, 2021)
  • American Political Science Association, Small Research Grant (2020)
  • American Political Science Association Research Partnerships on Critical Issues (shared with Amber Wichowsky, Shion Guha, and Jill Birren, 2020)

  • Marquette University, Summer Faculty Fellowship (2018)
  • Marquette University, Regular Research Grant (2018)
  • Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Health Policy Research Grant (shared with Ann Keller and Andrew S. Kelly, 2016)

 


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Department of Political Science
Wehr Physics Building, Room 468
1420 W. Clybourn St. 
Milwaukee, WI 53233
(414) 288-6842
sahvana.williams@marquette.edu

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