Through their research and studies, Stanford scholars have closely examined public policies and regulations related to issues that are being debated on the campaign trail – from how to deal with the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic to the devastating consequences of wildfires, for example. As their research shows, these are complex problems that require coordinated responses.

For example, when it comes to implementing policy to mitigate the heightened risk of wildfires in the American West, Stanford Law Professor Deborah Sivas says that implementing change requires balancing incentives. 

“Unfortunately, we really don’t have the right combination of public and private incentives and regulations – carrots and sticks, if you will – in place. We are geared up to fight wildfires like we fight wars, with heavy machinery and manpower,” said Sivas, director of Stanford’s Environmental Law Clinic and the Environmental and Natural Resources Law and Policy Program. 

Similarly, dealing with the economic consequences from the COVID-19 pandemic will also demand a coordinated approach. “Minimizing the damage requires a similar combination of policies: better coordinating disease containment to minimize lost production, identifying critical links in production chains and ensuring that they don’t break and cause cascading failures of companies, and stepping in to fill the gap in lending caused by the growing credit freeze,” said Stanford economist Matthew Jackson.

Amid these extraordinary times of unprecedented global change, here is how Stanford scholarship might inform some of the problems facing the country and the challenges surrounding governance and policymaking today.

Concerns about the impact of fake news, disinformation and misinformation across social media platforms and in news outlets are more relevant now than ever before. Even after the findings emerged from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian government efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election, questions linger about vulnerabilities in the democratic process and the influence of modern technology. 

“We know more than ever before about what happened in the 2016 election. Now we need to pivot to what needs to be done to prevent it in the future – from concrete legislative acts as well as steps that online platforms can take even without legislation,” said political scientist Michael McFaul. Joined by other scholars across Stanford, McFaul has been looking at various ways to protect the integrity of American elections. 

Meanwhile, others have examined the impacts technology, media and political messaging have on the democratic process. 

“Democracy cannot function without communication,” communication scholar Jon Krosnick said. “In order for voters to make informed choices among candidates, the voters must learn about the candidates’ policy positions, track records, personalities, past experience and much more.”

Here is what some of their scholarship reveals about the current media landscape and some of the challenges technology may pose to democratic processes.