Irene S. Rubin

Irene Sharp Rubin (born May 3, 1945) is an American political scientist, currently a Professor Emerita of Public Administration at Northern Illinois University. She researches the politics of public budgeting at various levels of American government, and she has written methodological texts on how to conduct and analyze research interviews.

Irene Sharp Rubin
Born	(1945-05-03)May 3, 1945^[1]
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Barnard College Harvard University University of Chicago
Awards	Levine Award, APSA Blum service award, AABPA
Scientific career
Fields	Political science Public policy Public administration Sociology Urban studies
Institutions	Lewis University University of Maryland Northern Illinois University

Education and early career

Rubin received a BA in East Asia studies in 1967 at Barnard College, followed by an MA in East Asia studies in 1969 from Harvard University.^[1] She then pursued a PhD in Sociology at the University of Chicago,^[2] which she completed in 1977.^[1]

Rubin began her career as a sociologist, ultimately transitioning into urban studies and then political science and public affairs. From 1976 until 1979, Rubin was a professor of sociology at Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois, where she was also Director of Urban Career Studies.^[1] In 1979 she became a professor at the University of Maryland Institute for Urban Studies, before moving to Northern Illinois University in 1981 where she remained as a professor of political science and public administration for the rest of her career.^[1]

Career

Rubin spent the bulk of her career, from 1981 until her retirement in 2004, at Northern Illinois University. During this time, she published articles across prominent urban affairs^[3] and public administration^[4] journals, as well as being an author or editor of 8 books.^[1] These include four single-authored books published between 1982 and 2002.

Rubin's most-referenced work, written with Herbert Rubin, is an introductory textbook on interview research called Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data, which was first published in 1995. The book introduces students to the concept of obtaining and analysing data from qualitative interviews, and describes methodological approaches for obtaining high-quality data from interviews.^[5] One of her single-authored books, the Politics of Public Budgeting, was originally published in 1990 and had been released in 9 editions by 2019.^[6] John Pitney Jr. wrote that the book is a classroom text or reference volume that introduces "how money is raised and spent at all levels of government".^[7] Rubin was also the editor of a 2008 book in the American Society for Public Administration Classics Series, called Public Budgeting: Policy, Process and Politics.^[1] She was the editor-in-chief of Public Budgeting & Finance from 1995–1996,^[8] and the editor-in-chief of the Public Administration Review from 1997–1999.

Rubin has won several awards from major professional organisations. In 1994, she was awarded the Charles H. Levine Memorial Award for Excellence in Public Administration from the American Political Science Association, given for "a public administration faculty member who has demonstrated excellence in teaching, research and service to the wider community".^[9] She also received the James L. Blum Award for distinguished service in budgeting from the American Association for Budget and Program Analysis,^[10] and several best paper awards from flagship journals.^[1]

Rubin has had one of the largest impacts of any active political scientist, as measured by citations. In 2019, Rubin was listed as the 13th most cited active emeritus political scientist at an American university in a citation analysis by the political scientists Hannah June Kim and Bernard Grofman.^[2] Rubin's work has also been referenced in media reports on public budgeting.^[11][12][13]

Selected works

• Running in the Red: The Political Dynamics of Urban Fiscal Stress (1982)
• Shrinking the Federal Government: The Effect of Cutbacks on Five Federal Agencies (1985)
• Class, Tax, and Power: Municipal Budgeting in the United States (1998)
• Balancing the Federal Budget: Eating the Seed Corn or Trimming the Herds (2002)
• The Politics of Public Budgeting: Getting and Spending, Borrowing and Balancing (2019)

Selected awards

• Levine Award, American Society for Public Administration ^[9]
• James L. Blum Award for distinguished service in budgeting, American Association for Budget and Program Analysis^[10]

References

1. "Irene S. Rubin CV" (PDF). Northern Illinois University. 22 February 2009. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
2. Kim, Hannah June; Grofman, Bernard (April 2019). "The Political Science 400: With Citation Counts by Cohort, Gender, and Subfield" (PDF). PS: Political Science & Politics. 52 (2): 296–311. doi:10.1017/S1049096518001786. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
3. Rubin, Irene S.; Rubin, Herbert J. (1 September 1987). "Economic Development Incentives: The Poor (Cities) Pay more". Urban Affairs Review. 23 (1). doi:10.1177/004208168702300104. S2CID 153468055.
4. Rubin, Irene S. (January 1988). "Municipal enterprises: Exploring budgetary and political implications". Public Administration Review. 48 (1): 542–550. doi:10.2307/975517. JSTOR 975517.
5. Ford, Cameron M. (September 1996). "Review of Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data". Journal of Product Innovation Management. 13 (5): 469–470. doi:10.1016/S0737-6782(96)90188-5.
6. "The Politics of Public Budgeting". SAGE Publishing. February 2019. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
7. Pitney Jr., John J. (December 1990). "Reviewed Works: Budget Reform Politics: The Design of the Appropriations Process in the House of Representatives 1865-1921 by Charles Stewart; The Politics of Public Budgeting: Getting and Spending, Borrowing and Balancing by Irene S. Rubin". American Political Science Review. 84 (4): 1409–1411. doi:10.2307/1963323. JSTOR 1963323.
8. D'Agostino, Maria J.; Levine, Helisse (2011). Women in Public Administration: Theory and Practice. Jones & Bartlett Learning. p. 153.
9. "Charles H. Levine Memorial Award for Excellence in Public Administration". American Political Science Association. 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
10. "James L. Blum Award Recipients". American Association for Budget and Program Analysis. 2019. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
11. Johnston, David Cay (15 June 2007). "Assisting the Good Life". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
12. Hidayah, Siti Nurul (31 December 2018). "Bencana alam dan ketidakberpihakan politik anggaran". Beritagar Merawat Indonesia (in Indonesian). Retrieved 19 January 2020.
13. Silitonga, Saor (25 June 2019). "Birokrasi Standar ISO dan ZI". Fagar Borneo (in Malay). Retrieved 19 January 2020.