Daniel A. Smith http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/dasmith (born 1966) is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 political scientist and author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

. He is a Professor of Political Science

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

 at the University of Florida

University of Florida

The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...

. A former Senior Fulbright Scholar in Ghana

Ghana

Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

, he is currently serving as the Director of UF's Political Campaigning Program http://www.polisci.ufl.edu/campaign/index.shtml.

Smith is a noted expert on direct democracy

Direct democracy

Direct democracy is a form of government in which people vote on policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives. Direct democracy is classically termed "pure democracy"...

 in the American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 states.

Education

Smith received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison

University of Wisconsin–Madison

The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...

 in 1994, and his B.A. (Phi Beta Kappa) in History from Penn State University in 1988.

Publications

Smith has published extensively on the politics and policy of direct democracy, as well as the adoption and early history of the initiative process. He is the author of several books. Educated by Initiative: The Effects of Direct Democracy on Citizens and Political Organizations in the American Stateshttp://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=11467 (University of Michigan Press, 2004), which he co-authored with Caroline J. Tolbert,http://www.polisci.uiowa.edu/faculty/pg_tolbert.html examines the “educative effects” of the initiative process on voter turnout, citizen engagement, and political efficacy, as well as the indirect impact citizen lawmaking has on interest groups and political parties.

Smith’s first book, Tax Crusaders and the Politics of Direct Democracy http://www.routledge.com/shopping_cart/products/product_detail.asp?sku=&isbn=9780415919913&parent_id=&pc=/shopping_cart/search/search.asp?search%3Dtax%2Bcrusaders (Routledge, 1998), investigated the financial backing and the populist-sounding rhetoric of three anti-tax ballot initiatives: Proposition 13 in California (1978), Proposition 2½

Proposition 2½

Proposition 2½ is a Massachusetts statute which limits property tax increases by Massachusetts municipalities. It was passed by ballot initiative, specifically called an initiative petition within Massachusetts state law, in 1980 and went into effect in 1982...

 in Massachusetts (1980), and TABOR

Tábor

Tábor is a city of the Czech Republic, in the South Bohemian Region. It is named after Mount Tabor, which is believed by many to be the place of the Transfiguration of Christ; however, the name became popular and nowadays translates to "camp" or "encampment" in the Czech language.The town was...

 in Colorado (1992).

Smith is also the coauthor, with Todd Donovan and Chris Mooney, of State and Local Politics: Institutions and Reform, now in its 2nd edition (Cengage, 2008). http://www.cengage.com/cengage/instructor.do?disciplinenumber=20&product_isbn=9780495802235&courseid=PO03&codeid=5FB6&sortByShow=all&sortBy=copyrightYear&instructorFlag=true&newProducts=false&codeFlag=true

Other Professional Activities

Professor Smith serves on the Board of Directors of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center Foundation (BISCF)http://www.ballot.org, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, DC, and is a member of the Board of Scholars with the Initiative and Referendum Institute http://www.iandrinstitute.org at the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

. Professor Smith’s commentary on the initiative process has appeared in or has been heard on numerous news media, including the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....

, USA Today

USA Today

USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

, BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

, National Public Radio, Voice of America

Voice of America

Voice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...

, ABC News

ABC News

ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...

 and NBC News

NBC News

NBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...

. Professor Smith has advised the state legislatures of Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

 and Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, as well as numerous groups on the mechanics and politics of the initiative process, and has served as an expert witness in several campaign finance

Campaign finance

Campaign finance refers to all funds that are raised and spent in order to promote candidates, parties or policies in some sort of electoral contest. In modern democracies such funds are not necessarily devoted to election campaigns. Issue campaigns in referendums, party activities and party...

 lawsuits. He is also the lead author of the "Direct Democracy Scholars Brief" in Doe v. Reed

Doe v. Reed

Doe v. Reed, 561 U.S. ___ , is a United States Supreme Court case which holds that the disclosure of signatures on a referendum does not violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.-Background:...

case heard by the Supreme Court of the United States

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

in 2010.