Kenneth P. Miller
Kenneth P. Miller is a professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College, specializing in state politics, policy, and law. Miller is the Director of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government, a research institute known for its expertise in redistricting, elections, demographic research, polling, and public policy analysis. He has written extensively on state politics and policy, direct democracy, constitutional law, courts, and political polarization.
Education
Miller has a B.A. from Pomona College, where he majored in Government, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. In 2002, he received a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Berkeley.Career
Prior to his academic career, Miller was an attorney with the law firm Morrison & Foerster and in 1991 co-founded the firm's Sacramento office.Upon completion of his Ph.D., Miller taught for one year at the University of San Francisco before moving to Claremont McKenna College in 2003. He became Associate Director of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government in 2009. In 2014, he became the founding co-director of Dreier Roundtable, a program that organizes discussions by political leaders, scholars, and others from a broad range of viewpoints, and provides support for students interested in national politics and policy. In 2020, he was named the Don H. and Edessa Rose Associate Professor of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College.
Scholarship
Miller is the author or co-author of several books and articles regarding state and national politics, policy, and law. His book Texas vs. California: A History of the Struggle for the Future of America explores why the nation’s two largest states have polarized politically, and how they have assumed leadership of the nation’s red and blue state blocs. His book Direct Democracy and the Courts analyzes the initiative process within the checks and balances system, and has been called “the standard work on the relationship between the judiciary and direct democracy.” Other works include Parchment Barriers: Political Polarization and the Limits of Constitutional Order and The New Political Geography of California co-edited with Frederick Douzet and Thad Kousser. He also has published articles on topics including the California Supreme Court, state constitutions, and voting rights.Rose Institute of State and Local Government
Miller served as Associate Director of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government from 2008-2021. He became the Rose Institute’s director on July 1, 2021. The Rose Institute was founded at Claremont McKenna College in 1973. Its mission is “to enhance the education of students at CMC, to produce high quality research, and to promote public understanding on issues of state and local government, politics, and policy, with an emphasis on California.”As part of his work for the Rose Institute, Miller has helped introduced new projects and areas of research. These include the following:
The , developed as the empirical basis for Miller’s 2009 book Direct Democracy and the Courts, is regularly updated to provide a summary of all voter-approved ballot initiatives throughout the United States from 1904 to 2023. The database contains more than 1,000 voter-approved initiatives from 24 states that use the initiative process. The database also summarizes and analyzes legal challenges to these ballot measures as well as the courts’ treatment of such cases.
Miller also supervises the Institute's , which provides the public non-partisan, online video summaries of California state ballot measures.
Under Miller's leadership, the Rose Institute has published the , an online periodical featuring "economic and political analyses focusing on the Inland Empire."
Miller has also worked with Claremont McKenna College Government Professor J. Andrew Sinclair to expand the Rose Institute’s polling program. In 2022, the Rose Institute conducted its first national pre-election poll, in partnership with YouGov. The poll produced two reports: and .
As part of his 2020 book, Texas vs. California, Miller analyzed California’s competitive strengths and vulnerabilities. This topic has become a central theme of several Rose Institute projects, including the Kosmont-Rose Institute Cost of Doing Business Survey and the Institute’s research on the California housing crisis and potential policy interventions.