Justin de Benedictis-Kessner is a political scientist whose work examines the often-messy relationship between cities, government, and the people those governments are supposed to serve.
He is the Emma Bloomberg Associate Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, where he studies urban politics and policy, particularly housing, transportation, policing, and other services governed at the local level. He also leads the Local Politics Lab, connecting research and students with real-world urban challenges.
A central question in his research is accountability.
Local governments make decisions people experience every day: whether streets get repaired, buses arrive, or neighborhoods feel cared for. Yet responsibility is often spread across agencies, elected officials, contractors, and overlapping jurisdictions, making it difficult to know whom to hold accountable.
His 2026 book, The Fog of Accountability, explores how weak electoral competition, complicated institutions, limited local media, and political finger-pointing obscure responsibility. His research includes case studies of road repair in Oakland and public transit in Boston.
His work turns a familiar idea about cities on its head: local government may be closest to us physically while remaining remarkably difficult to see clearly.
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