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The governance and public policy research group is theoretically, empirically and methodologically diverse, incorporating a wide range of outlooks in the study of institutions of governance, power dynamics and the policymaking process. Though this inclusive approach has facilitated development of a wide range of expertise (see below), the group is underpinned by a dual focus on theoretical development and synthesis in interpreting governance and the policy process, as well as the real-world outcomes and impacts of who is involved in making policy and how it is made. 

Prof. Kate Dommett

Democratic elections should be free and fair if they are to maintain public trust. To ensure these qualities, societies rely on transparency mechanisms to identify concerning practice. To date, however, systems of electoral oversight have failed to adapt to the digital age, meaning efforts to expose corruption rely on time-consuming manual practice. This project combines computational methods with political science classification techniques to build an automated system for the analysis of electoral spending returns. Moreover, it tests public and practitioner perceptions of this tool to identify how to foster public trust in this technique as a means of electoral oversight.

Prof. Ian Bache

The focus on economic growth as an instrument to lead societies towards sustainable and high well-being is increasingly problematic. While Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth is  slowing, its environmental and social costs are increasing, such that continued reliance on GDP growth entails a trade-off between the well-being of current versus future generations. In addition, research shows that higher GDP generally hardly improves people’s subjective well-being. To better support policy options, our project aims to develop a new economic development framework that provides evidence-based and theoretically-sound policy insights on how to raise well-being of present generations (leaving no one behind) without sacrificing future well-being.

Dr James Weinberg

Whilst decades of research have certified that political trust is responsive to what politicians do and say, we know very little about how politicians themselves perceive levels of public trust or when this might impact their behaviour in office. In a three year research project funded by the Leverhulme Trust, Dr James Weinberg has surveyed and interviewed elected politicians from three different countries to ascertain the content, predictors, and consequences of politicians’ trust perceptions. inform a new book with Oxford University Press and three additional grant applications on cognate questions such as when and how political interactions can be designed to close trust gaps between politicians and citizens.