Mark Baldassare

Mark Baldassare is president and CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California, where he holds the Miller Chair in Public Policy, and has directed the PPIC Statewide Survey since 1998. He is an expert on public opinion and survey methods, and has numerous journal articles and other publications on elections, voter behavior, and political and fiscal reform. He is the author of ten books, including, The Coming Age of Direct Democracy: California’s Recall and Beyond, A California State of Mind: The Conflicted Voter in a Changing World, and When Government Fails: The Orange County Bankruptcy. Previously, he served as PPIC’s director of research and senior fellow. Before joining PPIC, he was a professor of urban and regional planning in the School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine, where he held the Johnson Chair in Civic Governance. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California at Berkeley.

Last updated on 06/30/2022