Constitutional Law (Books and Journals)

• William Webster

• Angela Sydenham

• Peter Lyons

• Andrew Goodman

• Simon Adamyk

• William Webster
• Robert Weatherley

• Keith Pugsley
• Ken Miles

• David Giles
• Maurice Rifat

• Michael Butler

• Michael Smyth
• Patricia Barratt
• Fraser Campbell

• Cheryl Thompson-Barrow

Recent scholarship on women’s substantive representation has expanded from its initial focus on gender inequalities in parliaments and now studies (1) various group interests, (2) in different venues, (3) across different contexts and (4) using different methods and approaches. Building on these advances, we present a new comparative measure of women’s substantive representation. This ‘Substantive

The Welsh Labour government occupies a unique position in UK territorial politics, favouring neither the status quo nor independence for Wales while advocating a new settlement for the whole state. This article provides a detailed examination of its policy, focusing on its position on the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty. Drawing from a range of documentary sources, we analyse the Welsh...

Despite the growing literature on Brexit, specifically, and conflicts of sovereignty, more generally, there has been insufficient research on how the concept of sovereignty has been used in citizen campaigns and street protests across the United Kingdom – a form of ‘counter-democracy’ through which people attempted to oversee the post-referendum political process. Combining qualitative content...

How do minoritized citizens think about the politicians that represent them? How should they act and be? Drawing on 19 focus group interviews with 98 participants with a migration background in Germany and the Netherlands, we find that citizens’ evaluation of politicians depends on several factors. Politicians should be responsive, accessible, inclusive, and empathetic. Some participants consider

Starting from Jonathan Floyd’s contrast between ‘mentalism’ and ‘behaviourism’, I argue that, in general, we cannot make sense of a person’s behaviour without also understanding the thinking behind it. Floyd claims that ‘mentalist’ political philosophy is undercut by inconsistency and disagreement in people’s political judgements, but the evidence suggests otherwise. The public does not divide up

This article fills a gap in existing research by focusing on the political representation of denizens—legal residents not holding citizenship of the country and thus generally excluded from legislative politics. The empirical research on the effects of the presence of under-represented groups in representative bodies indicates that “who represents” (descriptive) is as important as “what is being...

Normative behaviourism says that the measure of political principles is how we respond to them in practice, not how they appear to us in theory, but is that a sustainable distinction? Does normative behaviourism end up relying on mentalism, or even utilitarianism? Does it assume too much of the data we either have now or could ever have? Does it bind us to the status quo or presume the end of...

Both urbanization and a high share of youth (“youth bulge”) have been shown to correlate with higher levels of political violence, in general, and terrorism, in particular. In this article, we test the hypothesis that urbanization and general youth bulge (share of aged 15–29 in the adult population) should produce a particularly significant impact on the level of terrorist activity when acting...

This article analyses how and when institutional actors can shape overlap with other international organisations. Growing overlap either poses the threat of marginalisation to the incumbent organisation or offers opportunities for cooperation. Institutional actors should therefore be expected to try shape the relations with the overlapping organisation to protect their own. The article theorises...

• British Journal of Politics and International Relations

This article examines the limits of state-led norm entrepreneurship in the case of the UK and the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative. The UK-led Preventing Sexual Violence in conflict Initiative emerged in 2012 and accelerated to the tipping point and beginning of the norm cascade by 2014. However, the Preventing Sexual Violence in conflict Initiative has since struggled to sustain

• Political Studies Review

This article studies contacts between interest groups and political parties. Existing research suggests that times of close and formal cooperation between parties and groups in Western Europe are over as the contacts have become more pragmatic and sometimes spontaneous. Studies usually point to ideological proximity and resource exchange as the main factors behind contacts, however, focusing...

• British Journal of Politics and International Relations

Attention given to the environment by the British public has fluctuated over recent decades. Having peaked in 2007 it declined, yet has recently risen dramatically. This raises questions about why public attention to the issue changes over time and to what extent this is driven by other actors and exogenous forces. This article examines these processes at the monthly level through a system of...

• Political Studies Review

• Political Studies Review

While much research has been devoted to the effects of inequality on political participation, little attention has been paid to how different kinds of subjective perceptions of social inequality affect citizens’ political behaviour. This is important since these perceptions shape the message that reaches political decision-makers when addressing concerns over social inequalities. This article...

• Political Studies Review

In this article, we analyze the use of social media by the members of the European Parliament. More specially, we examined whether members of the European Parliament use Facebook and Twitter for different purposes. To reach our goal, we contacted all 705 members of the European Parliament by email. The vast majority of members of the European Parliament who decided to participate in our survey...

• British Journal of Politics and International Relations

This article examines the limits of state-led norm entrepreneurship in the case of the UK and the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative. The UK-led Preventing Sexual Violence in conflict Initiative emerged in 2012 and accelerated to the tipping point and beginning of the norm cascade by 2014. However, the Preventing Sexual Violence in conflict Initiative has since struggled to sustain

• British Journal of Politics and International Relations

The European Union is broadly considered a benign reform actor, encouraging and supporting reforms in member states and beyond. However, European Union-induced reforms do not only generate the intended effects; they can also trigger unintended consequences for other reforms. These unintended consequences occur primarily through the impact of European Union-induced reforms on the resources...

• Political Studies Review

• British Journal of Politics and International Relations

Attention given to the environment by the British public has fluctuated over recent decades. Having peaked in 2007 it declined, yet has recently risen dramatically. This raises questions about why public attention to the issue changes over time and to what extent this is driven by other actors and exogenous forces. This article examines these processes at the monthly level through a system of...

• British Journal of Politics and International Relations

Selective industrial policy in the United Kingdom is conventionally believed to have vanished prior to the global financial crisis. This article, in contrast, argues that industrial policy remained an intrinsic, if seldom acknowledged, element of neoliberal statecraft. The basis of this is a subterfuge, conceptualised here as a ‘dual industrial policy’, which we explore via an empirical focus on...

• Political Studies Review

News parody as a genre of political satire has become an increasingly popular form of entertainment in the past two decades. Mirroring traditional news media in format and style has made this genre one that receives both praise and criticism. While some see it as a chance for a wider audience to become politically interested, others point to potentially negative effects such as increased...

• Political Studies Review

• Political Studies Review

While much research has been devoted to the effects of inequality on political participation, little attention has been paid to how different kinds of subjective perceptions of social inequality affect citizens’ political behaviour. This is important since these perceptions shape the message that reaches political decision-makers when addressing concerns over social inequalities. This article...

• British Journal of Politics and International Relations

The European Union is broadly considered a benign reform actor, encouraging and supporting reforms in member states and beyond. However, European Union-induced reforms do not only generate the intended effects; they can also trigger unintended consequences for other reforms. These unintended consequences occur primarily through the impact of European Union-induced reforms on the resources...

• British Journal of Politics and International Relations

Democracies are commonly thought to provide greater levels of public goods than autocracies. Given that many public goods are provided locally, higher levels of local democracy are further thought to result in better rates of provision in both autocratic and democratic systems. However, several studies have cast doubt on democratic superiority in public goods provision both nationally and locally.

• Political Studies Review

How much can a celebrity’s involvement with a charity campaign change minds and shape political opinion? We explore this issue in the context of an appeal by Benedict Cumberbatch regarding the Syrian refugee crisis. We find that while the emotional, vivid images of the video did elicit a statistically significant increase in students’ positive feelings toward Syrian refugees and efforts to help...

• Political Studies Review