Davia Downey, Ph.D.
dcdowney@memphis.edu
Associate Professor
University of Memphis
Year of PhD: 2011
Country: United States (Tennessee)
About Me:
I currently serve as the director of the Ph.D. in Urban Affairs in the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Memphis. Recent publications include, a solo-authored book entitled Disasters and Economic Recovery (Routledge Publishing, 2021), "Governing without Government: Nonprofit Governance in Detroit and Flint", co-authored with Sarah Reckhow and Joshua Sapotichne in Urban Affairs Review, "Federalism, intergovernmental relationships, and emergency response: A comparison of Australia and the United States", with William Myers in the American Review of Public Administration, "Sudden Versus Slow Death of Cities: New Orleans and Detroit", co-authored with Laura A. Reese in the DuBois Review: Social Science Research on Race; “Disaster Recovery in Black and White: A Comparison of New Orleans and Gulfport” in the American Review of Public Administration; and an edited book, Cities and Disasters (Taylor & Francis/CRC Press), published in 2015.
I hold a Ph.D. in Political Science from Michigan State University (2011), a Masters of Public Administration from Eastern Michigan University (2005) and a BA in Music Performance with a concentration in Human Services from Albion College (1999). I have sat on several community boards including, the Non-Conforming Use Committee, Community Development Advisory Committee, and the Housing Commission for the city of East Lansing, Michigan. I currently serve as a board member of Count MI Vote Education Fund, an affiliated nonprofit organization of Voters Not Politicians that supported the Prop 2 ballot campaign which brought reform to the redistricting process in the state of Michigan.
Research Interests
Public Policy
Race, Ethnicity and Politics
Nonprofits
Urban Politics
Disaster Politics
Economic Development
Nonprofit Collaboration
Local Governance
Comparative Judicial Politics
Budgets And Taxes
Countries of Interest
Australia
Canada
United States
Publications:
Journal Articles:
In recent years, policy scholars have been concerned with the significance of inaction in policy. Traditionally, public policy is the main tool by which governments maintain civic order, make provision for the delivery of public services, and respond to real-world problems. Given the myriad of social, economic, domestic, and international issues that might possibly need to be addressed at any given time, the political agenda is often overwhelmed, leaving an opportunity for inaction (or non-decisions) to take precedence in some issue areas. Issue definition and politics will matter greatly in the development of public policy, and some political actors, particularly in federal systems, may use inaction (non-decisions) to avoid committing necessary resources, or to appease some ideological base. This research considers the consequences of political inaction that can occur in the policymaking process and applies this concept to how executive actors in Florida and Michigan used their authority to address the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The recent COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted governance. A strong intergovernmental response is critical for stemming the worst damage during the outset of a disaster. Collaborative planning with networks of constituent governments, medical experts, and emergency managers are needed to provide a holistic response to the highly technical and complex issues brought on by the novel coronavirus. This commentary highlights the differences in response by the United States and Australia, provides a comparison of intergovernmental relationships, and sheds light on how these federations vertical and horizontal collaborative efforts were stymied by politics or facilitated by existing intergovernmental forums.
Scholars across the social sciences have shown how economic, social, and political changes are weakening local governments and contributing to rising nonprofit activity in urban politics. But these trends could now add up to a new form of decision-making in some American cities. The convergence of public sector austerity and a burgeoning philanthropic and nonprofit sector have created space for what we call “nonprofit governance.” In some cities, nonprofit leaders can guide urban policy, sometimes with limited input from elected officials or citizens. First, we apply insights from studies in comparative politics to demonstrate how nonprofit leadership can expand, particularly in the context of a weak state. Next, we assess trends in public sector capacity, based on local government employment in Midwestern U.S. cities. We closely examine Detroit and Flint due to dramatic declines in local government capacity and recent public sector crises in both cities, focusing on the role of nonprofits in each. These leading-edge cases allow us to trace the development of nonprofit governance and explore different forms of nonprofit and local government relationships.
Cities use tax increment financing (TIF) to trigger growth in blighted communities. Critics argue that Chicago’s broad conceptualization of “blight” facilitates the designation of TIF districts that do not resemble conventional notions of blight, bolstering their natural ability to generate capital, thereby exacerbating the gap between wealthy and poor minority spaces. This study examines Chicago’s TIF districts to determine whether blight levels and percentage of non-White residents interact to reduce the effectiveness of TIFs measured as the change in the equalized assessed valuation (EAV) of properties. Using composite indices to measure physical and economic blight, the results of a quantile regression analysis indicate that economically blighted TIFs with predominantly non-White populations outperform other districts. These findings run counter to expectations given that TIFs report high rates of growth in property values, yet they remain substantially blighted. This suggests a need to reconsider change in equalized assessed valuation as the measure of TIF effectiveness given that the “growth” in TIFs does not seem to reflect a higher quality of life for residents.
This paper constitutes a follow-up to an argument made during the late fall of 2005 that posited that many of the approaches and responses to sudden natural disasters might be effectively applied to areas experiencing more chronic economic decay. Using census, budgetary, and political data, including an analysis of planning and development documents, the paper addresses the following research questions: What were the economic and social trajectories of Detroit and New Orleans prior to their respective disasters? How did the responses to the hurricane impact New Orleans? Despite the attention given to New Orleans, why do current conditions differ little from Detroit? The findings suggest that Detroit and New Orleans were clearly both highly distressed cities, with large minority populations and significant inequality prior to Katrina, although Detroit's situation was arguably more severe. Significant media attention and investment in New Orleans appeared to follow in the wake of the hurricane. However, looking at federal and state investment in context suggests that it was not as high as might have been expected and implementation delays may well have lessened its impact. It is not at all clear that the response in New Orleans changed its economic trajectory much beyond that of Detroit, suggesting that the response to sudden disaster might not have aided the slow death of Detroit.
Party capability theory assumes that governments, due to their immense resources and status as repeat players, hold a great advantage over individuals and organizations pursuing litigation in courts. Less known is whether all levels of government enjoy this advantage, how they fare against one another and how an institutional arrangement such as federalism complicates such relationships. These questions are investigated using decisions made by the high courts of Australia, Canada, and the United States. The descriptive findings indicate that institutional arrangements, such as federalism, in some ways, confirm and in others confound traditional notions of which governments come out ahead, which yields important implications for party capability theory, specifically, and federalism, generally.
This article investigates the role race and class play in the economic recovery after Hurricane Katrina. Comparing the economic recovery of the cities of New Orleans and Gulfport, as well as making comparisons at the state level, reveals distinct differences in the economic recovery of these places. Utilizing a panel analysis, this article analyzes the effect Federal Emergency Management Agency dollars had on the recovery of jobs and housing post-Katrina. Results show that in the areas of job recovery, money played little role in economic recovery even while controlling for the effects of race and class. These results inform the debate over recovery in economically depressed places and show the importance of connecting emergency and disaster planning, particularly the recovery stage, to economic development.
Media Appearances:
TV Appearances:
After the Michigan Supreme Court decision allowing VotersNotPoliticians ballot proposal to go on the November ballot I was interviewed by 9 and 10 News in Grand Rapids about gerrymandering and its problems
Radio Appearances:
Each state is responding to the COVID-19 outbreak differently. What works well as Michigan slowly reopens its economy while keeping the population safe? WGVU spoke with a researcher whose focus is American disaster response...
WGVU Nonprofit Navigation Radio Interview with Shelley Irwin.
Newspaper Quotes:
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announces temporary statewide school, restaurant, gym closures. Some cities had imposed bans and others had not, which had resulted in a patchwork of closures across Texas.
By the last week of January, Rob DeLeo knew it was going to get bad. “I was having breakfast with my partner and I said, ‘We should get some extra food because we’re going to be inside for awhile,’” said DeLeo, a Bentley University professor who has been studying America’s political response to pandemics for more than 15 years. Over the next two weeks, as he began preparing for a lengthy period of self-isolation, he was struck how calm political leaders seemed to be. The coronavirus was never mentioned at the Democratic presidential debate on Feb. 7. Even as cases appeared in major cities and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that person-to-person transmission was underway, no one seemed interested in warning Americans to get ready for a lockdown.....
Co-authors, Sarah Reckhow and Josh Sapotichne and I submitted a piece on philanthropic giving to cities in distress to the Monkey Cage/Washington Post which was posted today. Some interesting observations for cities utilizing philanthropic giving as a lifeline to shoring up public service provision.