ABOUT
I am a Reader in Politics at Royal Holloway, University of London. I specialise in the study of public policymaking and litigation in the United States, with a particular focus on religion, race, and education. My work fits broadly within the American Political Development (APD) tradition.
My award-winning book America's Voucher Politics is out now with Cambridge University Press, and my study skills book Brilliant Essays is published by Bloomsbury in the Study Skills series.
Copies of America's Voucher Politics can be ordered here.
Listen to my New Books Network podcast on America's Voucher Politics, in conversation with Lilly Goren.
My essay writing guide, Brilliant Essays, can be ordered here.
America's Voucher Politics: How Elites Learned to Hide the State
Cambridge University Press
What explains the explosive growth of school vouchers in the last two decades? In America’s Voucher Politics, Ursula Hackett shows that the roots of the voucher movement lie in America’s foundational struggles over religion, race, and the role of government versus the private sector. Drawing upon original datasets, archival materials, and more than one hundred candid interviews with policymakers across the United States, Hackett shows that policymakers and political advocates use strategic policy design and rhetoric to hide the role of the state when their policy goals become legally controversial. Patiently, tactically, iteratively – over more than sixty years of voucher litigation – white supremacists, accommodationists, and individualists have honed this strategy of attenuated governance in court. By learning from previous mistakes and anticipating downstream effects, policymakers can avoid painful defeats, gain a secure legal footing, and entrench their policy commitments in spite of the surging power of rivals.
I am a Reader in Politics at Royal Holloway, University of London. I specialise in the study of public policymaking and litigation in the United States, with a particular focus on religion, race, and education. My work fits broadly within the American Political Development (APD) tradition.
My award-winning book America's Voucher Politics is out now with Cambridge University Press, and my study skills book Brilliant Essays is published by Bloomsbury in the Study Skills series.
Copies of America's Voucher Politics can be ordered here.
Listen to my New Books Network podcast on America's Voucher Politics, in conversation with Lilly Goren.
My essay writing guide, Brilliant Essays, can be ordered here.
America's Voucher Politics: How Elites Learned to Hide the State
Cambridge University Press
What explains the explosive growth of school vouchers in the last two decades? In America’s Voucher Politics, Ursula Hackett shows that the roots of the voucher movement lie in America’s foundational struggles over religion, race, and the role of government versus the private sector. Drawing upon original datasets, archival materials, and more than one hundred candid interviews with policymakers across the United States, Hackett shows that policymakers and political advocates use strategic policy design and rhetoric to hide the role of the state when their policy goals become legally controversial. Patiently, tactically, iteratively – over more than sixty years of voucher litigation – white supremacists, accommodationists, and individualists have honed this strategy of attenuated governance in court. By learning from previous mistakes and anticipating downstream effects, policymakers can avoid painful defeats, gain a secure legal footing, and entrench their policy commitments in spite of the surging power of rivals.