Academic Staff: David Richards
Professor David Richards, B.A. [Essex], MSc. [L.S.E], Ph.D.[Strathclyde]
Professor
email : david.richards@manchester.ac.uk
phone: 0161-275-4900
Profile
Professor Richards joined the School as Professor of Public Policy in September 2012. His
academic career started by completing a PhD from the Department of Government,
University of Strathclyde (1996). The thesis examined the politicisation of the Civil Service
under the 1979-97 Conservative Government. He then became a post-doctoral research
fellow at the Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of
Birmingham (1995-1998). In 1998 he joined the School of Politics and Communication
Studies, University of Liverpool as a Lecturer, becoming a Senior Lecturer in 2001 and a
Reader in 2004. In 2004, he joined the Department of Politics at the University of Sheffield,
first as a Reader and then from 2009 as a Professor of Politics. In 2000, he was a Visiting
Honorary Fellow at the Department of Government and International Relations, University
of Sydney, Australia. In 2008, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Research School of Social
Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
His main research interests are in British politics, Australian politics, public policy,
governance, globalisation, state theory and political biography. He is currently researching:
the changing role of the state through a critique of the literatures on governance,
democracy and accountability, the regulatory state and implementation; leaks and whistle
blowing in government; a multi-theoretical study on diffuse water pollution and the role of
political biography in political analysis.
Teaching
I have been teaching for over twenty years on a wide range of politics modules from large
Level 1 foundation courses on concepts in politics, representation, political analysis and
British Politics to much more specialised Level 4 modules reflecting my own particular
research specialisms. Whatever level I teach at, my main concern is to engage students in
contemporary debates at the cutting edge of the subject, encourage them to make their
own connections between the theoretical and the empirical and to approach the learning
process from a critical perspective challenging established orthodoxies. My teaching is very
much informed by whatever my current research interests are, helping to ensure that the
material on my courses is fresh, contemporary and engaging.
Recent Invited Papers and Keynote Lectures
Invited contributions include:
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The State in Late Modernity: Understanding Changing Forms of Power and Democracy,
Workshop on ‘Governance and Democracy’, Gothenburg University, Sweden, November 1011, 2011 [with Martin J. Smith]
Crisis, Coalition and the Embedding of the Hybrid State? Reflections on the Nature of UK
Governance in a Post Bureaucratic EraPaper presented at the 3rd Annual Conference of
Centre for British Politics, University of Nottingham – ‘Governance and Public Policy in the
United Kingdom’, 10 December 2010
The Future of State Centric Governance in the UK: Crisis and the Embedding of the Hybrid
State Model? Paper presented at SOG Conference, Crisis as Opportunity: State, Markets and
Communities in Turbulent Times, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, 4-5 November 2010
The House of Lords Constitution Committee’s Inquiry into the Cabinet Office and the Role
Central Government – ‘The Centre of Government: Past and Present Challenges’ House of
Lords, London, 4 November 2009
Key Projects/Grants
Title of project: The Technical, Governance and Regulatory Muddle of Diffuse Urban Water
Pollution
Awarding body: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
People Involved: David Richards [P.I.] and Daniel Fitzpatrick [Politics], John Hennerbury
[Town and Regional Planning] , David Lerner, Virginia Stovin and Adrian Saul [Engineering] –
all University of Sheffield.
Duration: 2011-12
Total award: £50,125
Title of project: Building Bridges between Political Biography and Political Science – A
Methodologically Innovative Study of the Core Executive under New Labour
Awarding body: Economic and Social Research Council
People Involved: David Richards
Duration: 2006-9
Total award: £81.251
Title of project: Public Service Delivery Programme: Analysing Delivery Chains in the Home
Office.
People Involved: Martin Smith, David Richards and Andrew Geddes
Duration: 2007-9
Total award: £43,275
Professional Activities and Recognition
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2009-10: Special Adviser to the House of Lords Constitution Committee´s Inquiry into `The
Cabinet Office and Central Government´, co-authoring the subsequent report: Constitution
Committee - Fourth Report The Cabinet Office and the Centre of Government 29 January
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2010.
Constitution Committee - Fourth Report The Cabinet Office and the Centre of Government
2007-11: Editor of Political Studies Review and on the Editorial Board of Political Studies.
2005-8: Fellow of the ESRC Virtual College
Current Research
Diffuse Water Pollution: This is a multi-disciplinary study [involving Depts. of Engineering,
Politics and Town and Regional Planning] to analyse the complexity involved in responding
to the issue of diffuse water pollution that has been highlighted as a significant water
management issue in the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). This
research project aims to examine the highly topical, but ill-defined and under-researched
problem of the diffuse pollution of urban water [DWP].
Governance and State Transformation: Explores the dichotomy between the governance
literature that emphasises a disaggregated, hollowed-out [minimal] state and the regulatory
state literature with its emphasis on an increased role for state agencies and a reconstituted
[active] state. Central to this research is to try to frame critical frames of the British political
tradition.
Public Policy: Exploring the evolving nature of public policy in the light of the challenges
presented by the governance narrative in the form of greater fragmentation, segmentation
and devolution and the State’s response. This area of research incorporates developing an
analytical framework for understanding change in the form of the strategic relational
approach and policy networks.
Political Biography: This research offers a methodologically innovative approach from
within the critical realist tradition bringing together approaches from both core executive
studies and political biography to explore the dialectical relationship between the material
and ideational.
Key Publications
Books
Institutional Crisis in Twenty-First Century Britain (Palgrave, Basingstoke) 2013 with Martin J.
Smith and Colin Hay.
New Labour and the Civil Service: Reconstituting The Westminster Model (Basingstoke:
Palgrave December 2008
British Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2006) (with Dennis Kavanagh, Martin Smith
and Andrew Geddes)
Governance and Public Policy in the UK (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002). (with Martin
Smith)
Changing Patterns of Governance in the United Kingdom (Palgrave, 2001) (with Martin Smith
and David Marsh)
The Civil Service under the Conservatives 1979-1997 (Sussex Academic Press, 1997)
Journal Articles
'Central Government Departments And The Policy Process' Public Administration 1993
Vol.71, No. 4. [with Smith M.J. & Marsh, D]. pp.567-594
'Why Did They Do It? Voting On Homosexuality And Capital Punishment In The House Of
Commons' Parliamentary Affairs 1994 Vol.47, No. 3. [with Marsh, D. & Read, M.]. pp.374386
'Elite Interviewing: Approaches and Pitfalls' (1996) Politics 16(3). pp.199-204
'Appointments to the Highest Grades in the Civil Service - Drawing the Curtain Open'
(1996) Public Administration Vol. 74/4. pp.657-678
'Thatcherism and the 3'rs': Radicalism, Realism and Rhetoric. The Third Term of the Thatcher
Government'. Parliamentary Affairs 1996 Vol.49/3. [with Dolowitz, D. Marsh, D. and O'Neil
F]. pp.455-470
Evidence to House of Lords Select Committee on Public Service Session 1996-97. Select
Committee on the Public Service Report: House of Lords London: HMSO. pp.96-102
'How Departments Change: Windows of Opportunity and Critical Junctures in Three
Departments' Public Policy and Administration 1997 Vol.12 No.2 [with Smith M.J].pp.62-79
'The Accountability of Public Bodies' Memorandum of Evidence to the Public Administration
Committee Sixth Report Quangos (1998-99) HC 209-11 pp.196-205
'The Tangled Webs of Westminster and Whitehall: The Discourse, Strategy and Practice of
Networking within the British Core Executive' Public Administration Spring 2000, 78/1 [with
Hay, C]. pp.1-28
'Re-Assessing the Role of Ministers' Public Administration 2000, Vol.78/2 [with Martin J.
Smith & D. Marsh]. pp.305-326
'Bureaucrats, Politicians and Reform in Whitehall: Analysing the Bureau-Shaping
Model' British Journal of Political Science 2000 Vol.30/3. [with Martin J. Smith & D. Marsh].
pp.461-482
'Power, Knowledge and the Core Executive: the Living Chimera of the Public Service Ethos
and the Role of the British Civil Service' West European Politics 2000 23/3 [with Martin J.
Smith]. pp.45-66
Departmentalism and Joined-Up Government: Back to the Future?' Parliamentary
Affairs January 2001 Vol.54/1 [with Dennis Kavanagh] pp.1-18
'Governance and Policy' Parliamentary Affairs, Vol.56/2 April 2003, pp.358-365
'Prime Ministers, Ministers and Civil Servants in Britain' Comparative Sociology 2003 Vol. 2/1
[with Dennis Kavanagh] pp175-195
'Unequal Power: Towards An Asymmetric Power Model of the British Polity', Government
and Opposition. [with David Marsh and Martin Smith] Vol.38/3, Summer 2003, pp.306-322
'Governance and Policy' Parliamentary Affairs Vol. 57/2 April 2004 pp.487-492
'Understanding and Explaining Civil Service Reform: A Reply to Dowding and James' British
Journal of Political Science [Spring 2004] Vol. 34/1 [with Martin J. Smith and D. Marsh].
pp.189-192
'Interpreting The World Of Political Elites: Some Methodological Issues' Public
Administration [Autumn 2004] Vol.82/4 [with Martin J. Smith]
‘Central Control and Policy Implementation in the UK: a Case Study of the Prime Minister’s
Delivery Unit’ Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis Vol. 8 No.4 Winter 2006 [with Martin J.
Smith]
‘New Labour and Whitehall – A Rocky, but Dependent Relationship’ Politics Review Volume
16, No.3, February 2007.
‘Political Control Vs Administration Autonomy: It’s The Mix That Matters’ The House
Magazine August 2007
‘British Politics And The Challenges To The Westminster Model’ Politics Review Volume 17,
No.3, February 2008 with Rt. Hon. David Blunkett MP
'Old and New Labour Narratives of Whitehall: Radicals, Reactionaries and Defenders of the
Westminster Model' Political Quarterly Vol, 79/4, October-December 2008 [with David
Blunkett and Helen Mathers].
'Sustaining the Westminster Model: A Case Study of the Transition in Power between
Political Parties in British Government' Parliamentary Affairs, Vol 62/1, January 2009.
'Decentring Policy Networks: A Theoretical Agenda', Public Administration Vol. 87/1 March
2009 [with Mark Bevir]
'Decentring Policy Networks: Lessons And Prospects' Public Administraton Vol.87/1 March
2009 [with Mark Belvir]
'New Labour and the Civil Service: Analysing the Issue of Politicisation', Political Education
Forum Journal, Vol.2 No.1 January 2009. ‘Back to the Future: New Labour, Sovereignty and
the Plurality of the Party’s Ideological Tradition’ British Politics, Vol. 5/3 September 2010.
[with Martin J. Smith]
‘Political Memoirs and New Labour: Interpretations of Power and the Club Rules’ British
Journal of Politics and International Relations Vol12/4, November 2010 pp.498-522. [with
Helen Mathers]
‘Book Reviewing in the Social Sciences: Exploring the Myth of the Asymmetric
Review’ Critical Policy Studies Vol4/4 December 2010 pp. 406-10.
‘Labour in and Out of Government: Political Ideas, Political Practice and the British Political
Tradition’ Political Studies Review Vol9/2 May 2011, [with David Blunkett] pp.180-192.
Analysing Policy Delivery: The Case of Street Crime and Anti-social Behaviour’ Public
Administration Vol 89/3, September 2011, pp.975-1000 [with M. Smith, A. Geddes and H.
Mathers]
‘The Case for Theoretical and Methodological Pluralism in British Political Studies: Reviewing
New Labour’s Political Memoirs and the British Political Tradition’, Political Studies Review,
Vol.10/2, May 2012 [with Patrick Diamond]
Book Chapters
'Central Government Departments and the Policy Process' in Rhodes, R. & Dunleavy, P.
[eds] Prime Minister, Cabinet and Core Executive (1995) Basingstoke, Macmillan. [with
Martin J. Smith and David Marsh] pp.38-60
'The Gatekeepers of the Common Good - Power and the Public Service Ethos' in. A.
Hondeghem [ed] Ethics and Accountability in a Context of Governance and New Public
Management (1998) Amsterdam: IOS Press. [with Martin J. Smith] pp.151-166
'The Conservatives, New Labour and Whitehall: A Biographical Examination of the Political
Flexibility of the Mandarin Cadre' in. K. Theakston [ed.] (1999) Bureaucrats and
Leadership London: Macmillan. pp.91-117
'Central Administration' in Catterall, P. (ed.) (1999) Britain in 1988: A Review of the
Year London: Institute of Contemporary British History pp.18-30
'New Labour, the Constitution and Reforming the State' in Ludlam, S. and Smith, M.J. (eds.)
(2000) New Labour in Government (Basingstoke: Macmillan). pp145-166
'The Changing Role of Central Government Departments' in Rhodes R.A.W. [ed.]
(2000) Transforming British Government Volume Two: Changing Roles and
Relationships London: Macmillan. [with Marsh, D & Smith, M.J.] pp.146-164
'Breaking the Policy Bias: Windows of Opportunity and the Realignment of Structural
Constraints in Three Governments Departments' in A. Cortell & S. Peterson (eds.)
(2002) Altered States: International Relations, Domestic Politics and Institutional
Change Lexington: Lexington Books [with Martin J. Smith]
'Continuities in Political Elites: Prime Ministers, Ministers and Civil Servants in Britain' in
Dogan, M. (ed.) (2003) Elite Configurations at the Apex of PowerLeidu: Brill. [with Dennis
Kavanagh] pp.175-195
'The Civil Service in Britain: a Case-Study in Path Dependency' in Halligan, J. (ed) (2004) Civil
Service Systems In Anglo-American Countries London: Edward Elgar pp.30-71
'New Labour and the Reform of the State' in Ludlam, S. and Smith, M.J. (eds.)
(2004) Governing as New Labour: Policy and Politics under BlairBasingstoke: Palgrave
pp.106-125
'The Changing Role of Central Government Departments' in Rhodes R.A.W. [ed.]
(2000) Transforming British Government Volume Two: Changing Roles and
Relationships London: Macmillan. [with Marsh, D & Smith, M.J.] pp.146-164
'Breaking the Policy Bias: Windows of Opportunity and the Realignment of Structural
Constraints in Three Governments Departments' in A. Cortell & S. Peterson (eds.)
(2002) Altered States: International Relations, Domestic Politics and Institutional
Change Lexington: Lexington Books [with Martin J. Smith]
'Continuities in Political Elites: Prime Ministers, Ministers and Civil Servants in Britain' in
Dogan, M. (ed.) (2003) Elite Configurations at the Apex of PowerLeidu: Brill. [with Dennis
Kavanagh] pp.175-195
'The Civil Service in Britain: a Case-Study in Path Dependency' in Halligan, J. (ed) (2004) Civil
Service Systems In Anglo-American Countries London: Edward Elgar pp.30-71
‘The Hybrid State: Labour’s response to the Challenge of Governance’’ in Ludlam, S. and
Smith, M.J. (eds.) (2004) Governing as New Labour: Policy and Politics under
Blair Basingstoke: Palgrave pp.106-125.
‘Delivery of Public Services’ in Geddes, A. and Tonge, J. (2005) Britain Decides: The UK
General Election 2005 Basingstoke: Palgrave
‘The Tensions of Political Control and Administrative Autonomy: from NPM to a
Reconstituted Westminster Model in P. Lægreid and T. Christensen (eds) (2006) Autonomy
and Regulation: Coping with Agencies in the Modern State London: Edward Elgar pp. 181200.
‘Changing Patterns of Executive Governance’ in Cowley, P., Hay, C. and Heffernan, R (eds)
(2010) Developments in British Politics 9, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
PhD Supervision
He is keen to supervise promising research students in a range of areas including: British and
Australian politics, the nature of the state, state theory and state transformation, and
comparative studies on governance, public policy, the regulatory state, and political
biography.
He has in the recent past successfully [co-]supervised PhD theses on topics including:
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'Manifestly Different?' An Analysis of the British Labour Party's Policy Development,
Examined Through the Party Manifestos of 1983-1997.
'Welfarism Anew? Territorial Politics and Inter-War State Housing in Three Lancashire
Towns'.
'What is New Labour's Idea of the State?' 'A Study of Mayoral Elections: Independent
success in the First English Mayoral Elections'
'Xenortransplantation and the Home Office' The Winner of the 2007 Political Science
Association Walter Bagehot Prize for Government and Public Administration
‘The Political Power of Business in the Regulatory State: An Analysis of State-Market
Relations in the Age of Governance’
‘Implementation in Britain in an Era of Governance: A Case Study of Sure Start under New
Labour’
'Filling-in' the hollowed out'? Assessing the strategic value of ICT in the New Labour core
executive (1997-2010’)
‘Power And Autonomy In The Saudi State. Case Study Analysis Of Policy Implementation’
Areas of present supervision:
'The Viability of Local Political Governance in the UK'
‘Regulation, Governance and State Transformation in Japan’
‘New Labour and the Disability Social Movement’
‘Interpreting change in the UK core executive: The nature and contingency of New Labour’s
approach to governance’