Keith Dowding

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Keith Dowding
Keith Dowding
Born	Keith Martin Dowding (1960-05-06) 6 May 1960 (age 63)
Nationality	British
Academic career
Institution	Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Field	Political science
Alma mater	Nuffield College, Oxford University

Keith Martin Dowding (born 6 May 1960)^[1] is a Professor of Political Science and Political Philosophy at the Australian National University's School of Politics and International Relations. He was in the Government Department at the London School of Economics in 2006,^[2] and has published in the fields of public administration and policy, political theory, and urban political economy. His work is informed by social and rational choice theories. He edited the SAGE Publishing Journal of Theoretical Politics from 1996 to 2012.

Early life[edit]

Dowding obtained his BA in Philosophy and Politics from Keele University in 1982, and a DPhil from Nuffield College, Oxford University in 1987.^[3]

Career[edit]

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Dowding began editing for SAGE Publishing in 1996.^[4] He was in the Government Department at the London School of Economics in 2006.^[2]

In 2007, Dowding arrived at the Australian National University and began teaching as Professor of Political Science.^[5]

Theory[edit]

Dowding works in political philosophy and mainstream empirical political science.^[6] Dowding is best known for his work on "power", applying insights from formal analysis to central debates on the nature of power and structure of power in society. Expanding on Brian Barry's concept of "luck," he argues that some groups of people are "systematically lucky" in that they are advantaged because of the way society is structured. Such people are not powerful in the sense they have resources that they could use that other groups do not (though they might have this power as well) but rather systematically lucky in that they tend to get what they want without having to do anything. Alternatively, other groups are systematically unlucky. This argument has caused great controversy with critics including Brian Barry, Steven Lukes, Peter Morriss and more recently Andrew Hindmoor.^[7]

Dowding has also worked on the Tiebout model of individuals moving location to get the local services they require, showing that such moving does occur in the UK though only to a small extent, and that people tend to move to areas for service reasons, but do not decide to leave from areas for those reasons. He has extended this work into examining Albert Hirschman's Exit, Voice and Loyalty Model and has a forthcoming Cambridge University Press book Exits, Voices and Social Investment co-authored with long-time collaborator Peter John extending and applying Hirschman's model to citizen satisfaction with government services.

Dowding also considered the theory of presidentialisation of British politics in his 2012 article, “The Prime Ministerialization of the British Prime Minister”.^[8] The article challenges Michael Foley’s theory that British politics is becoming increasingly similar to that of a presidential system. Dowding instead suggests that the British prime minister is gaining power, but only enhancing the responsibilities that he already possesses rather than adopting new powers that are more closely attributed to the United States’ President.

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

Dowding left LSE and joined the political science programme in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University (ANU) as a Research Professor of Political Science in July 2007 moving to the School of Politics and International Relations when the Arts Faculty coalesced with the Research School.

Research[edit]

The Careers of Cabinet Ministers[edit]

This project comes under the rubric of SEDEPE. Dowding’s work so far has largely been concerned with ministers in the British Cabinet and thus far largely concerned with their resignations. But now he is working to extend this work into the careers of ministers more broadly, and to extend its scope beyond the UK most notably into ministers in the Australian states and Commonwealth government. Publications from this project include the following:

• Dowding, Keith; Kang, Won-Taek (Autumn 1998). "Ministerial resignations 1945–97". Public Administration. 76 (3). Wiley: 411–429. doi:10.1111/1467-9299.00109.
• Dowding, Keith; Dewan, Torun (January 2005). "The corrective effect of ministerial resignations on government popularity". American Journal of Political Science. 49 (1). Wiley: 46–56. doi:10.1111/j.0092-5853.2005.00109.x.
• Dowding, Keith; Berlinski, Samuel; Dewan, Torun (April 2007). "The length of ministerial tenure in the United Kingdom, 1945–97". British Journal of Political Science. 37 (2). Cambridge Journals: 245–262. doi:10.1017/S0007123407000129. hdl:1885/22498. S2CID 153423164.
• Dowding, Keith; Dumont, Patrick (2009). The selection of ministers in Europe: hiring and firing. London New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-43081-4.
• Dowding, Keith; Berlinski, Samuel; Dewan, Torun (April 2010). "The impact of individual and collective performance on ministerial tenure". The Journal of Politics. 72 (2). Cambridge Journals: 559–571. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.516.9550. doi:10.1017/S0022381609990843. S2CID 53335942.
• Dowding, Keith; McLeay, Elizabeth (2011), "The firing line: when and why do prime ministers fire ministerial colleagues?", in 't Hart, Paul; Uhr, John (eds.), How power changes hands: transition and succession in government, Understanding Governance, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 157–173, ISBN 978-0-230-24296-8.
• Dowding, Keith; Berlinski, Samuel; Dewan, Torun (2012). Accounting for ministers: scandal and survival in British government, 1945–2007. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-51972-4.
• Dowding, Keith; Dumont, Patrick (2015). The Selection of Ministers Around the World. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-63346-8; ISBN 978-1-138-23819-0.
• Dowding, Keith; Dumont, Patrick (2012). Ministerial Careers and Accountability in the Australian Commonwealth Government. Canberra: ANU Press. ISBN 978-1-922-14400-3.

Analytical Account of Freedom and Rights[edit]

This is a joint work in collaboration with Martin van Hees. The object is to complete a book on the measurement of freedom and rights. Publications from this project include the following:

• Dowding, Keith; van Hees, Martin (May 2003). "The construction of rights". American Political Science Review. 97 (2). Cambridge Journals: 281–293. doi:10.1017/s0003055403000674. S2CID 56017464.
• Dowding, Keith (March 2004). "Social choice and the grammar of rights and freedoms". Political Studies. 52 (1). Wiley: 144–161. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9248.2004.00469.x. S2CID 144483072.
• Dowding, Keith; van Hees, Martin (June 2004). "Poverty and the local contingency of universal rights". International Social Science Journal. 56 (180). Wiley: 301–312. doi:10.1111/j.0020-8701.2004.00492.x.
• Dowding, Keith (March 2010). "Luck, equality and responsibility". Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy. 13 (1). Taylor and Francis: 71–92. doi:10.1080/13698230903326265. S2CID 144970778.

Reprinted in Matravers, Matt; Meyer, Lukas (2011). Democracy, equality, and justice. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-59292-5.

• Dowding, Keith (August 2011). "Republican freedom, rights, and the coalition problem". Politics, Philosophy & Economics. 10 (3). Sage: 301–322. doi:10.1177/1470594X10388380. S2CID 155062363.

Work on Amartya Sen[edit]

Dowding has analytically and empirically studied the measurement of freedom and rights. He has worked as part of a team led by Paul Anand, Open University, UK. They have been empirically examining Amartya Sen's capability approach through survey data ('Capabilities and Well-Being: Operationalizing the Capabilities Framework').^[9] This research was supported by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Board.

• Dowding, Keith (2009), "What is welfare and how might it be measured?", in Kincaid, Harold; Ross, Don (eds.), The Oxford handbook of philosophy of economics, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 511–539, ISBN 978-0-19-518925-4

Policy Agendas in Australia[edit]

With Aaron Martin of Melbourne University, Dowding worked on the Australian franchise of the Policy Agendas and Comparative Agenda Project. His interest in methodology and explanation led to a reflection on precisely what is being measured in these projects, as discussed in his Journal of Public Policy articles and opening chapters on the Policy Agendas in Australia book.

• Dowding, Keith; Martin, Aaron (2016). Policy Agendas in Australia. London: Palgrave. ISBN 978-3-319-40804-0
• Dowding, Keith; Hiindmoor, Andrew; Martin, Aaron (2016). "The Comparative Policy Agendas Project: Theory, Measurement, and Findings". Journal of Public Policy. 36 (1): 3–25. doi:10.1017/S0143814X15000124. S2CID 155580092.

Publications[edit]

Books[edit]

• Dowding, Keith M. (1991). Rational choice and political power. Aldershot, Hampshire, England Brookfield, Vermont, USA: Edward Elgar. ISBN 978-1-85278-335-8.
• Dowding, Keith (1995). The civil service. London New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-07568-8.
• Dowding, Keith; King, Desmond (1995). Preferences, institutions, and rational choice. Oxford New York: Clarendon Press Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-827895-5.
• Dowding, Keith (1996). Power. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press (series: Concepts in the Social Sciences). ISBN 978-0-8166-2940-4.
• Dowding, Keith; Margetts, Helen; Hughes, James (2001). Challenges to democracy: ideas, involvement, and institutions. The Political Studies Association Yearbook 2000. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire New York: Palgrave. ISBN 978-0-333-78982-7.
• Dowding, Keith; de Wispelaere, Jurgen; White, Stuart (2003). The ethics of stakeholding. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-0580-2.
• Dowding, Keith; Pateman, Carole; Goodin, Robert E. (2004). Justice and democracy: essays for Brian Barry. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-83695-1.
• Dowding, Keith; Dumont, Patrick (2009). The selection of ministers in Europe: hiring and firing. London, New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-43081-4.
• Dowding, Keith; Dewan, Torun; Shepsle, Kenneth A. (2009). Rational choice politics (4 volume set). London: Sage Library of Political Science. ISBN 978-1-4129-4502-8.

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

• Dowding, Keith (2011). Encyclopedia of power. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4129-2748-2.
• Dowding, Keith; Berlinski, Samuel; Dewan, Torun (2012). Accounting for ministers: scandal and survival in British government, 1945–2007. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-51972-4.
• Dowding, Keith (2016). The Philosophy and Methods of Political Science. London: Palgrave. ISBN 978-0-333-78694-9.
• Dowding, Keith (2017). Power, Luck and Freedom: Collected Essays. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-1-526-10728-2.
• Dowding, Keith; Martin, Aaron (2017). Policy Agendas in Australia. London: Palgrave. ISBN 978-3-319-40804-0.
• Dowding, Keith (2020). Its the Government, Stupid: How Governments blame citizens for their own policies. Bristol: Bristol University Press. ISBN 978-1-5292-0639-5.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Dowding's web page at the ANU