Truman School of Government and Public Affairs

Scott LaCombe is an Assistant Professor of Political Science in the Truman School of Government & Public Affairs and an Assistant Professor of Constitutional Democracy at the Kinder Institute. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Iowa.

Scott studies American politics with a focus on state-level institutions, policy diffusion, and political responsiveness. His research examines how states learn from one another, how institutional rules shape policy outcomes, and how citizens influence—or fail to influence—state policymaking. He combines quantitative methods, including network analysis, with theories of federalism to better understand the dynamics of policy change in the American states.

He also investigates how policies shape population health, economic outcomes, and political behavior. In addition to peer-reviewed publications, he is a co-author of Choosing the Future: Technology and