Dr. Smith's primary fields of interest are federal systems of government, complexity and public policy, and American government.
He is a fellow at the Center for the Study of Federalism, and editor of the online encyclopedia Federalism in America: An Encyclopedia
Dr. Smith first became interested in federalism when his east coast graduate friends argued for reintroducing wolves in the Rocky Mountains but opposed their reintroduction in the Adirondacks. His interest spiked when, as an intern with the U.S. Senate, he watched quarrels between his senators and the governor. Channeling his insights, he wrote a paper on how members of Congress responded to lobbying by state officials that won the “Best Paper in Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations” at the 1998 A.P.S.A. Annual Meeting. Since then his academic work has appeared in Publius: The Journal of Federalism; The Review of Politics; Congress & the Presidency; Thinking Skills & Creativity; and others. Dr. Smith loves learning and tackling challenges whether that be teaching students about federalism, writing, and reasoning, climbing cliff faces, playing classical guitar, or coaxing Hawai'i's fish to his spear.
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS:
- "Covenants, Constitutions, and the Citizenship of Self Government"(Faculty Forum Presentation, March 2018)
- "The Problem of Peace" (Presented to the BYUH Honors Society, 2008)
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
- "Teaching Critical Thinking in a GE Class: A Flipped Model,"Thinking Skills and Creativity co-authored with Paul Rama and Joel Helms (June 2018). Dr. Smith headed the committees that designed and developed the BYUH General Education critical thinking course (2014-2017). This paper describes the course and its effectiveness in teaching students critical thinking skills.
- “A Compound Republic – If You Can Keep It: Martha Derthick’s Empiricism and the Value of Federalism," Publius: The Journal of Federalism (Spring 2017).
- “Intergovernmental Relations in the United States,” Dialogues on Intergovernmental Relationsin Federal Countries , ed. by Cheryl Saunders, JoHanne Poirier and John Kincaid (Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 411-439.
- “Federalism: An Annotated Bibliography,”in Oxford Bibliographies Online: Political Science, ed. by Richard Valelly (New York: Oxford University Press, 29 Nov. 2011).
- “Intergovernmental Lobbying: How Opportunistic Actors Create a Less Structured and Balanced Federal System,”Intergovernmental Management for the 21st Century , ed. by Paul Posner and Timothy Conlan (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2008), pp. 310-37.
- “Responses to Rubin and Feeley,” by Troy E. Smith and J. Cherie Strachan, Publius: The Journal of Federalism (Spring 2008).
- “Divided Publius: Democracy, Federalism and the Cultivation of Public Sentiment,”Review of Politics (Fall 2007), pp. 568-598.
- Federalism in America: An Encyclopedia, 2-volume set, edited by Joseph R. Marbach, Ellis Katz and Troy E. Smith (Greenwood Press: 2005).
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