Kirby Goidel

Kirby Goidel is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Texas A&M University.

His research is motivated by questions of democratic governance, including whether citizens are up to the task of democratic governance., the willingness and ability of elites to manipulate public opinion, and the institutional mechanisms which translate democratic inputs into policy outcomes. His most recent project investigates how the public understands democracy and how those understanding influence political processes and outcomes. Dr. Goidel currently serves as a co-editor of the Social Science Quarterly. Previously, he served as the director of the Public Policy Research Institute at Texas A&M University, the Scripps Howard Professor of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University, and the founding director of LSU’s Public Policy Research Lab. Dr. Goidel is the author of Democracy's Meanings: How the Public Understands Democracy and Why It Matters, Misreading the Bill of Rights: Top Ten Myths Concerning Your Rights & Liberties, America’s Failing Experiment: How We The People Have Become the Problem and edited and contributed to Political Polling in a Digital Age: The Challenge of Measuring and Understanding Public Opinion.