policy publications

2022

1. IfG

   Managing as a minister: How personal style and gender norms affect leadership in government

   John Boswell, Jessica Smith, and Daniel Devine

   Institute for Government 2022

2021

1. Implementation of a Single Transferable Vote (STV) system for local elections in Wales

   Daniel Devine, Jac Larner, Stuart J. Turnbull-Dugarte, and 1 more author

   Welsh Government 2021

2020

1. PQ

   Covid‐19 and the Blunders of our Governments: Long‐run System Failings Aggravated by Political Choices

   Jen Gaskell, Gerry Stoker, Will Jennings, and 1 more author

   The Political Quarterly 2020

   Abs

   More urgently than ever we need an answer to the question posed by the late Mick Moran in The Political Quarterly nearly two decades ago: ‘if government now invests huge resources in trying to be smart why does it often act so dumb?’. We reflect on this question in the context of governmental responses to Covid-19 in four steps. First, we argue that blunders occur because of systemic weaknesses that stimulate poor policy choices. Second, we review and assess the performance of governments on Covid-19 across a range of advanced democracies. Third, in the light of these comparisons we argue that the UK system of governance has proved itself vulnerable to failure at the time when its citizens most needed it. Finally, we outline an agenda of reform that seeks to rectify structural weaknesses of that governance capacity.

2. UKICE

   Will Getting Brexit Done Restore Political Trust?

   Jen Gaskell, Gerry Stoker, Will Jennings, and 1 more author

   UK in a Changing Europe 2020

   Abs

   Will getting Brexit done be sufficient to restore public trust? Our conclusion, drawing on evidence from focus groups conducted during the summer of 2020, is that getting Brexit done may not deliver a restoration of trust in politics or necessarily lead to sustained support for the PM and the government.

3. Political Trust and the COVID-19 Crisis: Pushing Populism to the Backburner?

   Will Jennings, Viktor Orri Valgarðsson, Gerry Stoker, and 3 more authors

   Democracy 2025 2020

2019

1. IfG

   Becoming Secretary of State

   Catherine Haddon, Tim Durrant, Daniel Devine, and 1 more author

   Institute for Government 2019

2017

1. BA

   English identity and the governance of England

   John Denham, and Daniel Devine

   British Academy 2017

2016