I am a professor and Dean's Distinguished Research Fellow in the Department of Political Science at Auburn University, Alabama, US. My specialty area is public policy, and my research areas are in environmental policy and water governance. My work focuses on the intersection between policy and governance, and how policy choices influence governance structures. I am particularly interested in comparative state policy-- how national policy choices shape state and local government choices in water governance. My work has focused on comparative state policy in wastewater and drinking water infrastructure, nonpoint water pollution actions, and state climate change policy. My current work is focused on the ability of local governments in the US to provide water infrastructure that is resilient to the effects of severe weather, and how governance structures shape local government decision making. A stream of this work also compares US national and state water governance to that of the Netherlands. Finally, I have published a significant amount of work that focuses on collaborative watershed governance at the local level.
Organisations
Selected Books:
Adams, David P., Jonathan M. Fisk, and John C. Morris. 2026 (forthcoming). Navigating Water Outcomes in American Watersheds. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Farley, Jonathan D., Jonathan M. Fisk, and John C. Morris. 2024. The Drought Dilemma: States, Innovation, and the Politics of Water Quantity. New York: Routledge.
Morris, John C. 2022. Clean Water Policy and State Choice: Promise and Performance in the Water Quality Act. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Morris, John C., Martin K. Mayer, Robert C. Kenter, and R. Bruce Anderson. 2022. Policy Making and Southern Distinctiveness. New York: Routledge Press.
McNamara, Madeleine, and John C. Morris. 2021. Multiorganizational Arrangements for Watershed Protection: Working Better Together. New York: Routledge.
Diaz-Kope, Luisa, and John C. Morris. 2019. Organizational Motivation for Collaboration: Theory and Evidence.Lanham, MD: Lexington Press.
Morris, John C., and Katrina Miller-Stevens, eds. 2016. Advancing Collaboration Theory: Models, Typologies, and Evidence. New York: Routledge.
Morris, John C., William A. Gibson, William M. Levitt, and Shana C. Jones. 2013. The Case for Grassroots Collaboration: Social Capital and Ecosystem Restoration at the Local Level. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Emison, Gerald A., and John C. Morris, eds. 2012. True Green: Executive Effectiveness in the US Environmental Protection Agency. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Emison, Gerald A., and John C. Morris, eds. 2010. Speaking Green with a Southern Accent: Environmental Management and Innovation in the South. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Selected Recent Articles:
Crayton, Mac-Jane, Jonathn M. Fisk, Steven P. McKnight, Kellie Falbo, and John C. Morris. “Big Ideas, Big Barriers: Climate change Implementation at the Local Level.” Accepted for publication in Public Organization Review, August 2025 (forthcoming 2026).
Morris, John C., Joseph A. Aistrup, Zoe Nemerever, and Xiaodan Zhang. 2024. “Explaining State Allocation Shares Under the Water Quality Act of 1987: Incrementalism or Need?” Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 55,2, 353-378. Available at https://doi.org/10.1093/publius/pjae045.
Aistrup, Joseph A., and John C. Morris. 2024. “Does Institutional Location Matter? The Effect of Agency Type on Resource Distribution for Nonpoint Water Pollution.” Water Policy, 26, 10, 1039-1055. Available at https://doi.org/10.2166/wp.2024.178.
Zhang, Xiaodan, John C. Morris, Jonathan M. Fisk, and Martin K. Mayer. 2024. “Explaining State-Level Climate Change Policy Adoption, 2007-2016.” Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy, 5,2: 77-87. https://doi.org/10.1002/jci3.12020.
Vinke-deKruijf, Joanne, Megan Heim-La Frombois, Beau Warbroek, John C. Morris, and Stefan M.M. Kuks. 2024. “Climate-Resilient Water Infrastructure: A Call to Action.” Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy, 5,1: 17-29. https://doi.org/10.1002/jci3.12017.
Mayer, Martin K., John C. Morris. Xiaodan Zhang, and Madeleine W. McNamara. 2024. “Explaining State Efforts to Create TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) Agreements.” Social Science Quarterly, 105,5: 1776-1790. Available at https://doi.org/ 10.1111/ssqu.13444.
Diaz-Kope, Luisa, Kelly Krawczyk, John C. Morris, and Sindhu Weber. 2024. “Commitment to Place as Motivation for Citizen-Based Watershed Collaboration: The “BIMBY” Effect.” Journal of Public and Nonprofit Affairs, 10,2: 221-238.
Fisk, Jonathan M., Paul A. Harris, Stefan M.M. Kuks, John C. Morris, and Joanne Vinke-de Kruijf. 2023. “Framing Water Infrastructure for Climate Resilience: Governance Dimensions and Challenges.” Public Works Management & Policy, 29,2: 133-145. Available at DOI: 10.1177/1087724X231212556.
Chen, Xi, Jonathan M. Fisk, Martin K. Mayer, Madeleine W. McNamara, and John C. Morris. 2023. “Two’s Company, Three’s a Cloud: Explaining the Effect of Natural Disasters on Health-Based Violations in Drinking Water.” Risks, Hazards, and Crises in Public Policy. Available at DOI: 10.1002/rhc3.12280.
Fisk, Jonathan M., Martin K. Mayer, and John C. Morris. 2023. “Redundant, Abandoned, Idled, and Neglected Infrastructure: Problems and Solutions for the 21st Century.” Public Works Management & Policy. Available at https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724X221128816.
Diaz-Kope, Luisa, and John C. Morris. 2022. “Why Collaborate? Exploring the Role of Organizational Motivations in Cross-Sector Watershed Collaboration.” Politics & Policy, 50,3: 516-539.
McNamara, Madeleine W., and John C. Morris. 2022. “Expanding the Utility of Cross-Sectoral Collaboration in Policy Studies: Present and Future.” Policy Studies Yearbook, 12,1: 53-70.
Morris, John C., Ryan D. Williamson, and A. Stanley Meiburg. 2021. “Contours of a National Infrastructure Policy for the New Millennium.” Public Works Management & Policy, 26,3: 200-209.
Williamson, Ryan D., John C. Morris, and Jonathan M. Fisk. 2021. “Institutional Variation, Professionalization, and State Implementation Choices: An Examination of Investment in Water Quality Across the Fifty States.” American Review of Public Administration, 51,6: 436-448.
McNamara, Madeleine W., Katrina Miller-Stevens, and John C. Morris. 2020. “Exploring the Determinants of Collaboration Failure.” International Journal of Public Administration, 43,1: 49-59.
I hold the Ph.D. (1994), M.A. (1985), and B.A. (1982) from Auburn University. My teaching specialties are in public policy, policy implementation, and public administration. I teach courses at the bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. level.
My current projects include work in three streams. First, I am working on a funded projects to examine the ability of local governments in Alabama to provide water infrastructure that is resilient to severe weather events. Alabama experiences hurricanes, flooding thunderstorms, tornadoes, droughts, and severe hot and cold weather. These stressors can have profound effects on drinking water and wastewater systems. An element of this work is also part of a joint Auburn-Twente comparative research project.
A second stream of current research examines the efficacy of watershed collaboration to provide positive water quality outcomes. This large-N study includes watershed collaborations from all fifty US states, representing about 300 separate watersheds. The study finds that the positive effects of collaboration on measured water quality gains are minimal, but that collaboration participants tend to have very positive views of the effects of collaboration. We also note that collaboration may result in other, less tangible benefits within the watershed.
A third stream of research will examine drought policy in the US context of federalism and intergovernmental relations. The absence of a national policy on drought means that state governments become the preeminent policy actors, and states have taken very different approaches to drought policy. This study will examine the governance factors that determine state policy choices for drought.
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