Irene S. Rubin

Irene Sharp Rubin (born May 3, 1945) is an American political scientist, currently a Professor Emerita of Public Administration at Northern Illinois University. She researches the politics of public budgeting at various levels of American government, and she has written methodological texts on how to conduct and analyze research interviews.

Education and early career Rubin received a BA in East Asia studies in 1967 at Barnard College, followed by an MA in East Asia studies in 1969 from Harvard University. which she completed in 1977. and public administration journals, as well as being an author or editor of 8 books. One of her single-authored books, the Politics of Public Budgeting, was originally published in 1990 and had been released in 9 editions by 2019. John Pitney Jr. wrote that the book is a classroom text or reference volume that introduces "how money is raised and spent at all levels of government". Rubin was also the editor of a 2008 book in the American Society for Public Administration Classics Series, called Public Budgeting: Policy, Process and Politics. and the editor-in-chief of the Public Administration Review from 1997–1999.

Rubin has won several awards from major professional organisations. In 1994, she was awarded the Charles H. Levine Memorial Award for Excellence in Public Administration from the American Political Science Association, given for "a public administration faculty member who has demonstrated excellence in teaching, research and service to the wider community". She also received the James L. Blum Award for distinguished service in budgeting from the American Association for Budget and Program Analysis, and several best paper awards from flagship journals.

Selected works Running in the Red: The Political Dynamics of Urban Fiscal Stress (1982) Shrinking the Federal Government: The Effect of Cutbacks on Five Federal Agencies (1985) Class, Tax, and Power: Municipal Budgeting in the United States (1998) Balancing the Federal Budget: Eating the Seed Corn or Trimming the Herds (2002) The Politics of Public Budgeting: Getting and Spending, Borrowing and Balancing (2019)

Selected awards Levine Award, American Society for Public Administration James L. Blum Award for distinguished service in budgeting, American Association for Budget and Program Analysis