Research and publications

Consolidated our reputation as the best political science department for research

Over the last 45 years we have built a solid reputation as the best political science research department in the UK and Europe. We have achieved the top rating in all six Research Assessment Exercises (RAE), the only department to have achieved this.

Cutting-edge political research

As one of the largest departments in Europe we have researchers working in many areas of political science research. We are at the cutting edge of research in British, European and International politics, with a particular strength in electoral politics.

Our research is arranged into four clusters:

• Comparative and British politics
• Elections, institutions and political behaviour
• International relations
• Political theory

These research strengths inform our wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

We host a number of leading research centres and our academics produce and are members of editorial boards for a wide range of political science publications and journals.

Broad in scope and open to new ideas

We are a contemporary department that adapts to the changes in the world, which can be seen through our developments in the fields of international relations and conflict resolution and the establishment of the Institute for Democracy and Conflict Resolution. We are strongly committed to a study of politics that is broad in scope, rigorous in approach and open to new ideas.

Recognised by major funders

Many of our staff are very successful in winning external funding to continue our pursuit of academic excellence. Professors Paul Whiteley and David Sanders (working with researchers from the University of Dallas) are responsible for the British Election Study, a major Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded study carried out after each general election in the UK to describe and explain why people vote, what affects the electoral outcome and what are the consequences of elections for democracy in Britain.

Other significant research grants include:

• Disaggregating civil war (Professor Kristian Skrede Gleditsch)
• The structure, causes, and consequences of foreign policy attitudes (Dr Tom Scotto)
• Causes, consequences and lessons learned from policy and administrative failure (Professor Anthony King)
• Globalization and political accountability in the UK (Dr Ren Lindstdt)

Last modified on 06 March 2012