The Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS) is an organized research unit of the University of California at Berkeley. Born in 1919 as the Bureau of Public Administration, IGS has become the University of California's primary center for interdisciplinary research in politics, government, and public policy. Institute faculty and scholars specialize in the study of American national, state, and local government and politics, public administration, technology and government, and public policy. Ongoing research focuses on such issues as the history of American political institutions, reapportionment in theory and practice, racial and ethnic politics in California, political regulation and campaign finance, immigration and citizenship, and institutional reform.
IGS supports faculty research, conducts seminars, sponsors programs for scholars, students, and policymakers, and provides an intellectual home for graduate students. The IGS Press pursues a vigorous publishing program, and the IGS Library, with two librarians and more than 400,000 documents, pamphlets, research reports, periodicals, and books, is a unique resource for scholars and students of public policy and public administration.
The IGS family includes a mix of faculty, research professionals, faculty associates and students, as well as affiliated faculty from half a dozen social science and professional disciplines. All share a concern for politics, public policy, and the methodologies and theories that better inform analysis.
Three endowments — the Joseph P. and Polly Harris Trust, the Franklin K. Lane Fund, and the Margaret H. Duffy Memorial Fund — supplement state support, as do grants from government and private foundations and individual gifts. Though the figures vary slightly from year to year, IGS derives roughly half of its support from the state of California, one quarter from endowments, and one quarter from contracts and other private sources.
IGS seminars, conferences, and publications stimulate discussion and debate and extend the results of Institute research to a wider university, local, state, and national audience.
A constant stream of guests — elected officials, journalists, scholars, and public administrators — provides up-to-the-minute input on current concerns.