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Marc J. Dunkelman

Fellow in International and Public Affairs
marc_dunkelman@brown.edu
Areas of Interest Politics, community, infrastructure.

Biography

Marc J. Dunkelman is a fellow at Brown University’s Watson School for International and Public Affairs and a former fellow at NYU’s Marron Institute of Urban Management. During more than a decade working in politics, he worked for Democratic members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives and as a senior fellow at the Clinton Foundation. The author of Why Nothing Works and The Vanishing Neighbor, Dunkelman’s work has also appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Atlantic, and Politico. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Publications

  • “To fend off the far right, democracy needs to deliver,” Financial Times, August 27, 2025.
  • “The Question Progressives Refuse to Answer,” The Atlantic, April 2, 2025.
  • “How Decades-Old Progressive Reforms Helped Usher in a Culture of Police Impunity,” Time, February 27, 2025.
  • “Massachusetts Wants Clean Energy. Why Is It So Hard to Make It Happen?” Politico Magazine, Feb. 23, 2025.
  • “How Progressives Broke the Government,” Atlantic, February 16, 2025.
  • “Why the government built only 58 EV charging stations in three years,” Washington Post, February 10, 2025.

Recent News

Democracy Project NYU Law

Progressivism’s goose and gander problem (op-ed by Marc J. Dunkelman)

In this op-ed, Marc J. Dunkleman discussed the barriers to passing the SPEED Act, a bipartisan effort to speed the permitting process on infrastructure projects, and the Democrats' underlying distrust of executive authority.
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Commonweal Magazine

Delivery problems (interview with Marc J. Dunkelman)

In this interview, Marc J. Dunkelman discussed the growing frustration with the government’s inability to finish major projects on time and on budget and what can be done about it.
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How to Fix It with John Avlon

America’s New Crisis: We Can’t Build (interview with Marc Dunkelman)

In an interview with How to Fix It, Marc Dunkelman tells John Avlon that America’s inability to build—from EV chargers to rail projects—stems from a fragmented, veto-heavy system that stalls progress and must be reformed to work again.
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News from Watson

Research and scholarship programs provide MPA students with unique learning and leadership opportunities

The Master of Public Affairs (MPA) Program offers two distinctive programs that enable students to build connections and deepen their MPA experience. The MPA Research Fellows Program emphasizes faculty engagement and hands-on research, while the Equity in Policy Scholars Program stresses interaction with policy practitioners and leadership development.
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