POLICY AND PRACTICE - American Capitalism and American Democracy

10/22/21 • 72 min

This seminar presents – and vigorously critiques – a new edited volume, “American Political Economy”, which aims to reorient our understanding of US politics. Democratic erosions and economic inequalities, two of the most pressing political problems of the United States and its rich western peers, can only be understood in light of the economic, geographic, institutional and racial contexts in which politics are contested.

Speakers

Jacob S. Hackeris Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science at Yale University. A regular media commentator and policy adviser, he is the author or co-author of five books, numerous journal articles, and a wide range of popular writings onAmerican politics and public policy, including the highly influential Winner Take-All Politics (2010).
Professor Desmond Kingwho is the Andrew W Mellon Professor of Government at the University of Oxford. He specializes in the study of theAmericanstate in US executive politics, race and politics inAmericanpolitical development, and the financial bases of US politics.
Edward Luce is the US national editor and columnist at the Financial Times, and co-author of the Swamp Notes newsletter, which covers the intersection of money, power, and politics in America. He is the author of three highly acclaimed books, including The Retreat of Western Liberalism (2017) and Time to Start Thinking: America in the Age of Descent (2012).
Dr. Lucy Barnes is Associate Professor of Comparative Politics at UCL. She specialises in the comparative political economy of rich western democracies (including the USA), with particular focus on the interactions of political institutions and individuals’ ideas, attitudes, and behaviours, in the politics of economic policy-making.

Speakers

Jacob S. Hackeris Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science at Yale University. A regular media commentator and policy adviser, he is the author or co-author of five books, numerous journal articles, and a wide range of popular writings onAmerican politics and public policy, including the highly influential Winner Take-All Politics (2010).
Professor Desmond Kingwho is the Andrew W Mellon Professor of Government at the University of Oxford. He specializes in the study of theAmericanstate in US executive politics, race and politics inAmericanpolitical development, and the financial bases of US politics.
Edward Luce is the US national editor and columnist at the Financial Times, and co-author of the Swamp Notes newsletter, which covers the intersection of money, power, and politics in America. He is the author of three highly acclaimed books, including The Retreat of Western Liberalism (2017) and Time to Start Thinking: America in the Age of Descent (2012).
Dr. Lucy Barnes is Associate Professor of Comparative Politics at UCL. She specialises in the comparative political economy of rich western democracies (including the USA), with particular focus on the interactions of political institutions and individuals’ ideas, attitudes, and behaviours, in the politics of economic policy-making.

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POLICY AND PRACTICE - COP26 and the Political Economy of Climate Change

In this seminar Michael Jacobs will explain the main issues to be discussed at the Summit, the key players, and likely outcomes. He will place COP26 in the wider context of multilateral cooperation and the domestic politics of acting on climate change.

Michael was climate adviser to Gordon Brown when he was Prime Minister and was heavily involved in the (unsuccessful) Copenhagen COP15 in 2009. He subsequently advised the French and UK governments and others in the run-up to COP21 in 2015, which resulted in the historic Paris Climate Agreement. He was a founder of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. He is now Professor of Political Economy and a fellow of the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Sheffield.

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POLICY AND PRACTICE - Covid and the Use and Abuse of Statistics

Official statistics and evidence have been central in ensuring that the government has the best possible data, not just on infections and deaths, but on social behaviour, the impact on the economy, etc. As chair of the UK Statistics Authority, Sir David Norgrove is responsible for safeguarding the production and publication of official statistics: he will discuss how data and statistics evolved during the pandemic, and the strengths and weaknesses of the way Government handled the data.

Sir David Norgrove is a businessman and government official, who has been chair of the UK Statistics Authority since 2017. The UK Statistics Authority is an independent body which oversees the Office for National Statistics, the Office for Statistics Regulation, and the Government Statistical Service. He was previously the first chairman of The Pensions Regulator, and then chair of the Low Pay Commission.

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