Jenna Bednar

Bednar was an undergraduate at the University of Michigan.[1] She moved to Stanford University as a doctoral researcher, where she earned a PhD in 1998.[2] Her doctorate investigated the political economy of federal stability.[3] After graduating, she worked at the University of Iowa.[1]

Bender studies the political mechanisms that give rise to stabilities in federal states.[4] She has studied how institutions maintain and distribute authority. Her research showed that the distribution of authority by a constitution can be meaningless if governments do not abide by them. With a focus on the United States, she has examined how the federal government takes advantage of state governments.

In 2009, Bednar published The Robust Federation, Principles of Design, a book which examines how federal constitution can produce resilient governments.[5] The book is mainly theoretical, and was inspired by the writings of the Founding Fathers of the United States.[5] In 2019, The Robust Federation: Principles of Design was awarded the American Political Science Association Martha Derthick Book Award.[6]

• Bednar, Jenna (2009). The robust federation : principles of design. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-511-46431-7. OCLC 313651876.
• Ferejohn, John; Rakove, Jack N.; Riley, Jonathan (October 8, 2001). Constitutional Culture and Democratic Rule. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-79370-4.
• Bednar, Jenna; Page, Scott (February 2007). "Can Game(s) Theory Explain Culture?: The Emergence of Cultural Behavior Within Multiple Games". Rationality and Society. 19 (1): 65–97. doi:10.1177/1043463107075108. S2CID 14181429.