#  Bethany Cates 

 

 



   ![Bethany Cates](/sites/g/files/omnuum9911/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/2025-07/Bethany%20Cates.png?itok=QnK7gQPB) 

 



 





 

Bethany Cates is a PhD candidate in philosophy at Harvard. Her dissertation addresses a central question in contemporary American housing policy: how should authority over housing policy be distributed? That is, who should have a say in decisions over such policies as zoning and construction approval processes? Should local residents enjoy special (perhaps even sovereign?) authority, or should state and federal governments be allowed to dictate local requirements? What kind of constraints might the demands of distributive justice place on local democratic procedures?

Bethany addresses these questions by building a case for a legitimate interest in local authority. Individuals have good reason to want to exert influence over the built environment of their neighborhoods, and liberal governments have good reason to grant them at least *some* control. But the grounds of an interest in local control also generate limits on that interest, offering guidance for how to balance it against other important claims, like the distributive claims of one's co-citizens as well as *their* morally-significant claims to democratic influence. Bethany's dissertation explores the possibilities available to liberal democratic governments to respect legitimate interests in local control while also meeting the various claims of non-local citizens.

Before coming to Harvard, Bethany spent a year serving as a research assistant for Professor Guyora Binder at the University at Buffalo School of Law. Before that, she received her B.S. in physics from MIT, with a minor in political science. She is a steadfast and ever-suffering fan of the Buffalo Bills.



 

 

 





 

 

- ## Current Role
    
     [Graduate Fellow](/current-role/graduate-fellow)