UCL Uncovering Politics

COP is back. This month, leaders from the worlds of politics, industry, activism, and academia will gather again – for COP27 – in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt.A COP taking place in Africa underlines many of the pressing issues that delegates will face. How can justice be achieved for those countries that are least responsible for CO2 levels, but often the most damaged by climate change? And how can such a large-scale event, bringing people together from around the world, be run without in itself creating more environmental damage? This week we are joined by Dr Simon Chin-Yee, Lecturer in International Development in the UCL Department of Political Science and Professor Mark Maslin, Professor of Earth System Science in the UCL Department of Geography.  Mentioned in this episode:Jonathan Barnsley, Jhénelle A Williams and Simon Chin-Yee et al. Location location location: A carbon footprint calculator for transparent travel to COP27. Jhénelle Williams, Simon Chin-Yee and Mark Maslin et al. Africa and Climate Justice at COP27 and beyond: impacts and solutions through an interdisciplinary lens.  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.

Politics in the UK is in a state of turmoil. Every time we think it can’t get any crazier, it finds a way of doing just that. Many of the roots of the trouble can be found in Brexit. Whatever you think of Brexit, it’s clear that the referendum of June 2016 forced parliament to implement a massive switch in the direction of the country that most MPs thought was wrong, and split the main parties – particularly the Conservative Party – down the middle. The politics of ideology trumped the politics of competence. This week we look at a new piece of research by two researchers here at UCL, which sheds light on an important aspect of the story.  It assesses just how much influence parliament had in shaping the various laws that had to be passed to make Brexit a reality and put alternative arrangements in place. The authors of the study are: Dr Tom Fleming, Lecturer in British and Comparative Politics here in the UCL Department of Political Science and a member of the UCL Constitution Unit, and Lisa James, Research Fellow at the Constitution Unit and co-author of the forthcoming OUP book, The Parliamentary Battle over Brexit.  Mentioned in this episode:Fleming, T. and James, L., 'Parliamentary Influence on Brexit Legislation, 2017–2019', Parliamentary AffairsRussel, M. and James, L., 'The Parliamentary Battle over Brexit'. Oxford University Press  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.

Rhetoric around immigrants ‘stealing people’s jobs’ has become common in contemporary British politics, especially during the debates around the 2016 Brexit referendum. Meanwhile, rising automation has spurred discussion of how many jobs will be taken over by the ‘robots’. The ways we talk about these two threats of job losses can be strikingly similar and both pose questions about how the labour market will be structured in the future.A new book examining these discourses and their role in British economic and political debate, called Robots and Immigrants: Who Is Stealing Jobs?, was published last month by Bristol University Press. It’s by Dr Kostas Maronitis, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Leeds Trinity University, and Dr Denny Pencheva, Lecturer in European Politics and Public Policy at UCL. Mentioned in this episode:Maronitis, K., & Pencheva, D. (2022). Robots and Immigrants: Who is stealing jobs? Bristol University Press.  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 focusing this week on public administration. While mention of the word bureaucracy rarely lifts hearts, it’s incredibly important for the development of public policy, for the delivery of public services, and for all the other things that the state does. To consider how public administration can be run well, UCL Uncovering Politics is joined by Marc Esteve, Professor of International Public Management in the UCL Department of Political Science. Mentioned in this episode:Bel, G., M. Esteve., J.G. Garrido., & J.L. Zafra-Gómez., 'The costs of corporatization: Analysing the effects of forms of governance', Public AdministrationLee, S., & M. Esteve., 'What drives the perceived legitimacy of collaborative governance? An experimental study', Public Management 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.

The podcast has been on its summer break over the last few months, but politics certainly hasn’t stopped. The war in Ukraine has rumbled on. The global energy crisis, partly a result of the war, has forced policymakers to rethink how energy markets work. The energy crisis intersects with efforts to tackle the climate crisis, which have in some ways intensified in the wake of last year’s COP26 meeting in Glasgow. In the UK, Boris Johnson was forced out as Prime Minster and replaced by Liz Truss. And just days after Truss entered office, the death of Queen Elizabeth made headlines around the world.To discuss these issues and more, we’re joined by a trio of top professors from the UCL Department of Political Science.Kristin Bakke is Professor of Political Science and International Relations. She heads our Conflict and Change research cluster, and, among other things, she is currently an investigator on a collaborative research project exploring geopolitical orientations in Russia’s near abroad.Lisa Vanhala is Professor of Political Science and works on the politics of climate change and the socio-legal study of human rights and equality. She is currently leading a major research project examining the politics of climate change loss and damage.Meg Russell is Professor of British and Comparative Politics and Director of the UCL Constitution Unit. She is leading the Unit’s current project on Constitutional Principles and the Health of Democracy. And her latest book, The Parliamentary Battle over Brexit, will be published by Oxford University Press in March next year.   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.

Tackling injustice is one of the main motivations that many people have for getting involved in politics. Whether those injustices relate to income inequalities, the harms caused by climate change, discrimination based on gender or ethnicity, or failures to acknowledge each person’s particular identity, most of us want to see change. But how best to achieve that?Well some intriguing new research focuses on the role of blame. Political theorists have often been dubious of the merits of blame, seeing it as backward-looking and unduly negative. But Hannah McHugh, a PhD student in the UCL Department of Political Science, argues that blame is due for something of a rehabilitation. To discuss this proposition, UCL Uncovering Politics is joined by Hannah and Dr Avia Pasternak, Associate Professor in Political Theory in the Department.Mentioned in this episode:H. McHugh., 'For a Backward-Looking Account of Political Responsibility: Rescuing the Role of Blame and Praise', Unpublished PhD chapterA. Pasternak., Responsible Citizens, Irresponsible States: Should Citizens Pay for Their States' Wrongdoings? (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021)'The Ethics of Violent Protest', UCL Uncovering Politics, May 2021  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.

It is estimated that around a fifth of people working in the UK today are disabled in some way. Many of these people report feeling that their employers do a poor job at accommodating their requirements to make their workplaces more inclusive. Yet the 2010 Equality Act was designed to protect disabled people from ‘discrimination or disadvantage’ in work by placing a legal responsibility on employers to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to accommodate their disabled workers' needs. So why is this discrimination still occurring? Is the Equality Act still fit for purpose? And what can be done to improve the situation?To discuss these questions and the launch of their new report, Uncovering Politics is joined by two members of the UCL Department of Political Science: Dr Sarabajaya Kumar, Lecturer in Voluntary Sector Policy and Leadership; and Dr Colin Provost, Associate Professor of Public Policy.Mentioned in this episode:S. Kumar., & C. Provost., Ableism and the Labour Market (The Association of Disabled Professionals: 2022)  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.

‘It’s the economy, stupid’. That, famously, was one of the organising principles of Bill Clinton’s campaign for the US presidency in 1992. Thirty years on, amidst a cost of living crisis, economic policy decisions still often dominate politics. Some of the debates about economic policy relate to questions of fundamental values: how much weight should we place, for example, on the size of the cake or on its distribution?But other debates focus on questions of fact. Would lowering taxes today fuel inflation? Did austerity a decade ago protect the public finances by bringing spending closer to tax receipts, or harm them by shrinking the economy and thereby diminishing the tax take?So, if fundamental questions at the heart of politics are, at least in principle, answerable by experts, that raises the question of what the relationship between elected politicians and expert economists should be. The Bank of England was given independent control over monetary policy 25 years ago. So should other areas of economic policy get similar technocratic treatment? Or does political control matter?To discuss these issues, UCL Uncovering Politics is joined by Dr Anna Killick, Research Fellow in the UCL Department of Political Science. Mentioned in this episode:A. Killick., Politicians and Economic Experts: The Limits of Technocracy (Newcastle: Agenda Publishing, 2022)  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.

It almost goes without saying that public opinion matters in a democracy, where leaders can be scrutinised in the free press and held accountable at free and fair elections. But public attitudes matter in authoritarian contexts too – as illustrated by how careful Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is being at the moment to control the media narrative around his war in Ukraine. So, what role does public opinion play in autocracies? Can we accurately measure public opinion in such settings? And what does the evidence suggest about the state of public opinion in Russia today?To answer these questions, UCL Uncovering Politics is joined by Dr Katerina Tertytchnaya, Lecturer in Comparative Politics in the UCL Department of Political Science. Mentioned this episode:N. Buckley, K.L. Marquardt, O.J. Reuter, & K. Tertytchnaya., 'Endogenous Popularity: How Perceptions of Support Affect the Popularity of Authoritarian Regimes', Varieties of Democracy Institute N. Buckley, K.L. Marquardt, O.J. Reuter, & K. Tertytchnaya., 'How popular is Putin, really?', Washington Post   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.

Uniquely, this week we are discussing both a new publication and a new institution. The publication is a book called Out of the Ordinary: How Everyday Life Inspired a Nation and How It Can Again. This book examines the political thought of a group of writers and artists in mid-20th-century Britain, centred around Dylan Thomas, George Orwell, and J.B. Priestley. Their ideas, it argues, offer a vision for how to overcome the polarisation and alienation of our politics today.The institution is the UCL Policy Lab, which was launched earlier this week, and which seeks to bring together UCL’s top political scientists and economists with policymakers and others in order, we hope, to foster positive change.Professor Marc Stears, the author of Out of the Ordinary and the inaugural Director of the UCL Policy Lab, joins Uncovering Politics this week.Mentioned this week:M. Stears., Out of the Ordinary: How Everyday Life Inspired a Nation and How It Can Again (London: Belknap Press, 2021)The UCL Policy Lab  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.