UCL Uncovering Politics

One of the most basic questions regarding any state is 'can it act?' Does it have the capacity, that is, to uphold the rule of law and to deliver security and public services? For a state has the capacity to act it needs information on its citizens. You can’t tax someone or assess their eligibility for services if you don’t know who or where they are.But states may be unable to require its citizens to provide information – it may have to rely on their wanting to do so. And that has potentially profound implications for how equitable state activities are – and therefore ultimately how the state develops and builds its legitimacy. We are joined this week by Dr Jeremy Bowles, Lecturer in Comparative Politics, expert in the political economy of development and the interaction of state-building processes with distributive politics. Mentioned in this episode;Jeremy Bowles (2024) Identifying the Rich: Registration, Taxation, and Access to the State in Tanzania. American Political Science Review  UCL’s Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy offers a uniquely stimulating environment for the study of all fields of politics, including international relations, political theory, human rights, public policy-making and administration. The Department is recognised for its world-class research and policy impact, ranking among the top departments in the UK on both the 2021 Research Excellence Framework and the latest Guardian rankings.

We're celebrating another inaugural lecture today and welcome the fantastic Professor Lucy Barnes. Lucy has made a career out of breaking new ground in the field of Political Economy. Economic policy clearly matters to us all. The view that the state of the economy is the primary driver of election results is often taken as a given. But we can only understand the implications of that if we understand how people actually view the economy. Do people look to their own good or to the good of society as a whole? Do they look forwards or backwards? What do they think ‘good’ means in this context in the first place?Watch Lucy's inaugural lecture on Youtube: https://youtu.be/hfK8Qd85-xMMentioned in this episode:Barnes, L. and Hicks, T. (2022) ‘Are Policy Analogies Persuasive? The Household Budget Analogy and Public Support for Austerity’, British Journal of Political Science, 52(3), pp. 1296–1314.Barnes, L. (2021) ‘Taxing the Rich: Public Preferences and Public Understanding’, Journal of European Public Policy, 29(5), pp. 787–804.  UCL’s Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy offers a uniquely stimulating environment for the study of all fields of politics, including international relations, political theory, human rights, public policy-making and administration. The Department is recognised for its world-class research and policy impact, ranking among the top departments in the UK on both the 2021 Research Excellence Framework and the latest Guardian rankings.

Discussion revolves around the proposal to seize Russian assets amounting to $300 billion in Western countries to support Ukraine. Dr. Veronica Fickfak provides insights on the legal and moral implications. International responses to Russia's expulsion from the Council of Europe are also explored, along with establishing a tribunal for crimes of aggression in Ukraine.

The podcast discusses the debate between experts and politicians in setting fiscal policy, exploring the influence of public debt trends on politicians' decisions. It delves into the notion of freedom as non-domination in decision-making and the role of fiscal councils in budgeting decisions. The intersection of economics and political philosophy in shaping fiscal policy is also explored.

The NHS is currently in crisis: record numbers of people are on waiting lists, there are serious staff shortages, buildings and equipment are outdated, and research indicates that patient satisfaction is at rock bottom. There does not seem to be much optimism about the UK’s current health system and the NHS’s public support may be waning. Beyond clinical shortcomings, we face a string of public health challenges in the UK, including persistent health inequalities and a slowing or even halted rate of increase in life expectancy. Is there a way out of the current crisis for the NHS – and a way forwards for public health more broadly? How much should the state do to promote our health? And can a look  at the values that ought to underpin public health strategies tell us how to do better? This week we are joined by Albert Weale, Emeritus Professor of Political Theory and Public Policy here in UCL Department of Political Science, and James Wilson, Professor of Philosophy in UCL Department of Philosophy. He is also co-director of the UCL Health Humanities Centre.Mentioned in this episode:Peter Littlejohns, David J. Hunter, Albert Weale, Jacqueline Johnson, Toslima Khatun. 2023 'Making Health Public: A Manifesto for a New Social Contract.'James Wilson. 2021 'Philosophy for Public Health and Public Policy: Beyond the Neglectful State.'James Wilson. 2023  ‘What makes a health system good? From cost-effectiveness analysis to ethical improvement in health systems.’ Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy.  UCL’s Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy offers a uniquely stimulating environment for the study of all fields of politics, including international relations, political theory, human rights, public policy-making and administration. The Department is recognised for its world-class research and policy impact, ranking among the top departments in the UK on both the 2021 Research Excellence Framework and the latest Guardian rankings.

Armed conflict is all too common around the world today. One of the consequences of conflict is that civilians are harmed. Military forces – if they respect basic moral and legal standards – seek to avoid those harms so far as they can. But sometimes they will fail in that. So how should armed forces and governments respond when they cause unintended harm to civilians?Well that is a question that the United States and its allies are thinking about very carefully at the moment.One of the researchers whose work is shaping that process joins us today. She is Dr Kaleigh Heard. Kaleigh has advised multiple governments and NGOs around the world. She is also Lecturer in Human Rights here in the UCL Department of Political Science. Mentioned in this episode:Kaleigh Heard. The Price of a Life: The Confluence of Strategy and Legitimacy in Civilian Harm Compensation.   UCL’s Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy offers a uniquely stimulating environment for the study of all fields of politics, including international relations, political theory, human rights, public policy-making and administration. The Department is recognised for its world-class research and policy impact, ranking among the top departments in the UK on both the 2021 Research Excellence Framework and the latest Guardian rankings.

Exploring the impact of climate protests on UK MPs' discussions, analyzing influence on political discourse and policy change. Examines correlation between Fridays for Future protests and MPs' behavior, with focus on social media activity. Discusses generalizability of protest impacts and role of local protests in shaping politician behavior. Encourages future research on protest influence on political speech.

In the wake of the 1917 Russian Revolution, the new Bolshevik regime, keen to destroy the power of global capital, expropriated the commanding heights of the Russian economy and repudiated a mountain of foreign debt incurred by the Tsar. That action left thousands of international investors out of pocket. But addressing their claims proved exceptionally hard. Only in 1986, in the era of Thatcher and Gorbachev, did the British and Soviet governments finally reach a settlement. Other Western powers agreed resolutions later still.The story of this episode is fascinating in itself, but it also sheds new light on how disputes between states and international investors are resolved today. Those disputes rarely hit the headlines, however, that they can be incredibly important for all of us. How they’re resolved today is very different from in the 1980s, but the modern methods face severe criticism – not least from experts and campaigners who argue they can impede action on climate change and human rights. Lauge Poulsen joins us today. He is Professor of International Relations and Law here in the UCL Department of Political Science, is co-author of the study of the Russian case, and THE expert on disputes between states and investors.  Mentioned in this episode:Eileen Denza and Lauge Poulsen. 'Settling Russia's Imperial and Baltic Debts'. American Journal of International Law.  UCL’s Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy offers a uniquely stimulating environment for the study of all fields of politics, including international relations, political theory, human rights, public policy-making and administration. The Department is recognised for its world-class research and policy impact, ranking among the top departments in the UK on both the 2021 Research Excellence Framework and the latest Guardian rankings.

Death threats, on the face it, appear to be exactly the sort of content that an online platform ought to censor – or ‘moderate’, as the preferred and obscuring term has it. Surely it is impermissible to threaten someone’s life and surely it is appropriate for online spaces like Facebook – or now Meta – to remove such speech. But what if the statement isn’t really an urge towards violence, nor a declaration of one’s intent to kill? Sometimes, when people make death threats, say to dictators, might that really be more of a political slogan or a form of critique? What if there is no intent behind the threat, and the target isn’t in danger? And ought online platforms care about such nuance when thinking about what to leave up and what to take down. We are joined by Jeffrey Howard, who is Associate Professor in Political Philosophy and Public Policy, and director of the Digital Speech Lab, and Sarah Fisher, a Research Fellow. Mentioned in this episode:Jeffrey Howard and Sarah Fisher. Ambiguous Threats: ‘Death-to’ Statements and the Moderation of Online Speech-Acts. Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy (forthcoming)  UCL’s Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy offers a uniquely stimulating environment for the study of all fields of politics, including international relations, political theory, human rights, public policy-making and administration. The Department is recognised for its world-class research and policy impact, ranking among the top departments in the UK on both the 2021 Research Excellence Framework and the latest Guardian rankings.

For around a decade, the EU – which was founded by the principles of freedom, democracy and the rule of law – has been struggling to contain anti-democratic developments in some member states. More broadly, the European Union faces a challenge of how to create unity, and yet accommodate the significant political, social, and economic diversity of its member states. Can it accommodate this diversity? And can it do so without risking being unfair or undermining its own legitimacy? Addressing these big questions is Professor Richard Bellamy, Professor of Political Science here at in the Department of Political Science and a Senior Fellow at the Hertie School in Berlin. He has recently co-authored a book on the subject, called Flexible Europe: Differentiated Integration, Fairness, and Democracy.Mentioned in this episode:Richard Bellamy. Flexible Europe: Differentiated Integration, Fairness, and Democracy.   UCL’s Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy offers a uniquely stimulating environment for the study of all fields of politics, including international relations, political theory, human rights, public policy-making and administration. The Department is recognised for its world-class research and policy impact, ranking among the top departments in the UK on both the 2021 Research Excellence Framework and the latest Guardian rankings.