Keith Dowding

Keith Martin Dowding (born 6 May 1960,) is a professor of political science and political philosophy at the was a faculty member in the Government Department at the London School of Economics in 2006. Dowding's research encompasses public administration, public policy, political theory, and urban political economy, focusing on social and rational choice theories. From 1996 to 2012, he served as editor of the '' Journal of Theoretical Politics'', published by SAGE Publishing.

Early life

Dowding obtained his BA in Philosophy and Politics from Keele University in 1982 and completed a his DPhil at Nuffield College, Oxford of University, in 1987.

Career

Dowding began editing for SAGE Publishing in 1996. In 2007, he began teaching as a Professor of Political Science at the Australian National University.

Theory

Dowding's work spans political philosophy and empirical political science. He has published research on "power," applying concepts from formal analysis to debates on the nature of power and the structure of power in society. Expanding on Brian Barry's concept of "luck," he argues that some groups of people are "systematically lucky" because they are advantaged by society's structure, while other groups are systematically unlucky. This argument has drawn criticism from scholars including Brian Barry, Steven Lukes, Peter Morriss, and Andrew Hindmoor.

Dowding has also researched the Tiebout model concerning individuals moving for local services. His work indicated that such migration occurs in the UK, though to a small extent, and that people tend to move to areas for service reasons but do not typically leave areas for those reasons. He has extended this research to examine Albert Hirschman's Exit, Voice and Loyalty Model. In 2012, he co-authored the book ''Exits, Voices and Social Investment'' with Peter John, applying Hirschman's model to citizen satisfaction with government services.

In his 2012 article, "The Prime Ministerialisation of the British Prime Minister," Dowding considered the theory of presidentialisation of British politics. The article challenges Michael Foley's theory that British politics is becoming increasingly similar to a presidential system. Dowding suggested that the British prime minister is gaining power by enhancing existing responsibilities rather than adopting new powers attributed to the President of the United States.

More recently, his work has examined why UK cabinet ministers resign, based on a dataset of UK ministerial resignations and non-resignations, and has compiled a similar dataset for Australia. He is currently working on a project examining political careers in Australia.

Research

The Careers of Cabinet Ministers

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Analytical Account of Freedom and Rights

This is a joint work in collaboration with Martin van Hees.
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::Reprinted in
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Work on Amartya Sen

Dowding has studied the measurement of freedom and rights. He has worked for the team led by Paul Anand, Open University, UK. Using survey data, they examined Amartya Sen's capability approach ('Capabilities and Well-Being: Operationalizing the Capabilities Framework').Anand, Paul, Graham Hunter, Keith Dowding, Ian Carter, Francesco Guala, and Martin van Hees. 2009. "The Development of Capability Indicators." Journal of Human Development and Capabilities 10 (1): 125–52./ This research was supported by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Board.
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Policy Agendas in Australia

With Aaron Martin of Melbourne University, Dowding worked on the Australian franchise of the Policy Agendas and Comparative Agenda Project. He has addressed methodological questions regarding what is measured in these projects, which he discussed in articles in the Journal of Public Policy and opening chapters of the book 'Policy Agendas in Australia'.

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Publications

Books

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::Volume I: Social choice, equilibrium and electoral systems
::Volume II: Voting, elections and pressure politics
::Volume III: Legislatures
::Volume IV: Bureaucracy, constitutional arrangements and the state
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References

External links

Dowding's web page at the ANU

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dowding, Keith
1960 births
21st-century British philosophers
Academics of the London School of Economics
Alumni of Keele University
Alumni of Nuffield College, Oxford
Academic staff of the Australian National University
British political philosophers
British political scientists
British editors
Living people