Obituary: Professor Grant Jordan*
| Published date | 01 January 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0952076717732847 |
| Date | 01 January 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Obituaries |
Obituary
Obituary: Professor
Grant Jordan*
Lynn Bennie, William Maloney and
Paul Cairney
Professor Grant Jordan died on Friday 23 June at his home in Hatton, UK, aged
68. Most people know him as an esteemed international scholar in the field of public
administration, the policymaking process and interest group politics. We remember
him as a valued colleague, mentor and friend.
After graduating from Aberdeen University (the class of 1971), Grant worked in
market research for 18 months and then began his academic career at Keele
University as a Research Assistant with Professor Jeremy Richardson. He returned
to Aberdeen as a lecturer in 1974, was promoted to a personal chair in 1990 and,
from 2000, he steered Politics and International Relations as Head of Department
until his retirement in 2010.
Grant was a stellar scholar with an outstanding publication record. He was the
author/editor of 15 books and published numerous articles in major journals
including the British Journal of Political Science,European Journal of Political
Research,Journal of Common Market Studies,Political Studies,Public
Administration and the Journal of Public Policy. He was co-author (with Jeremy
Richardson) of the highly influential and agenda-setting Governing Under Pressure.
They produced a series of insights that still underpin the contemporary discussion
of public policy:
.The size and scope of the state is so large that it is in danger of becoming
unmanageable. The same can be said of the crowded environment in which
huge numbers of actors seek policy influence. Consequently, the state’s compo-
nent parts are broken down into policy sectors and sub-sectors, with power
spread across government.
.Elected policymakers can only pay attention to a tiny proportion of issues for
which they are responsible. So, they pay attention to a small number and ignore
Public Policy and Administration
2018, Vol. 33(1) 121–123
!The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/0952076717732847
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*The final, definitive version of this paper was first published in Teaching Public Administration on 21 August
2017, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0144739417726404, by SAGE Publishing. All rights
reserved.
Corresponding author:
Paul Cairney, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK.
Email: p.a.cairney@stir.ac.uk
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