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Biography

Professor Peter John is the Hallsworth Chair of Governance and Co-Director of IPEG. He has held posts at Birkbeck College, University of Southampton, Keele University and the Policy Studies Institute. See his CV for full history.

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Research Interests

Peter John’s main research interests are urban/local politics, both UK and comparative; public policy; participation and civic engagement; and field experiments.

Local politics is represented by ongoing work on local leadership with a project at Cardiff University Leadership Changes and Public Services: Reinvigorating Performance or Reinforcing Decline? and papers following the evaluation of new council constitutions and co-editorship of the Oxford Handbook of Urban Politics with Susan Clarke and Karen Mossberger (in preparation).

Representing work on participation is an ESRC Ventures project, Rediscovering the Civic, part of a team from the University of Southampton. See also the recent book, Re-Energizing Citizenship.  This seeks to use the experimental method to evaluate initiatives to involve citizens.

Bridging participation and local politics is his work with Keith Dowding (ANU) on Exit, Voice and Loyalty. See ESRC project: http://www.publicservices.ac.uk/research/exit-and-voice-as-a-means-of-enhancing-service-delivery/

Public policy is represented by the project on urban agendas (see the paper 'Explaining policy change' below), the project; ' The Policy Priorities of UK Governments' which has coded Queen's Speeches since 1945, and a new project funded from the European Science Foundation/Economic and Research Council, ‘Legislative policy agendas in the UK, with Will Jennings and Daren Halpin. www.policyagendas.org.uk.

Experiments is represented by the design experiments paper (see below) and the interest in randomised control trials (see the 'Get Out the Vote' study and the Ventures project.

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Books

• Local Governance in Western Europe ( London : Sage, 2001)
  
  
• Local Governance in England and France ( London : Routledge, 2001)
  
  
• Analysing Public Policy (London, Cassell, 1998)

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Recent Publications

• 'Can the internet overcome the logic of collective action? An experiment of the impact of social pressure on political participation. Helen Margetts and Peter John. Paper presented at the Field Experiments in Comparative Politics and Policy Conference, 1-2 July 2008, Manchester.
• 'Geographic Mobility, Social Connections and Turnout in the US and UK'. Keith Dowding, Peter John and Daniel Rubenson. Paper presented at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, 28-31 August, Boston.
• Bertelli, Anthony M. and John, P. 'Government Checking Government. How Performance Measures Expand Distributive Politics'. September 2008.
• Peter John ‘Territory and Power and the study of comparative politics’, introduction to the re-issue of J. Bulpitt, Territory and Power in the United Kingdom, part of the Sage Classics series
• Does Stronger Political Leadership have a Performance Payoff?  Citizen Satisfaction and Trust in the Institutional Redesign of Sub-central Governments in England, 2000-2006, Stephen Greasley and Peter John, Paper to PSPE Conference on "Designing Democratic Institutions"13-14 May 2008, London School of Economics.
• John, P. 'Territorial choice in United Kingdom: the endless search for efficiency' draft chapter for Harald Baldersheim and Larry Rose (eds), Territorial Choice in Europe
• Boyne G.A., James O., John P. and Petrovsky N. 'Changing the guard or moving the deckchairs: political change and performance change in English local government' Paper presented to UK Political Studies Association 2008 Annual Conference Panel 'The Politics of Public Service Performance: Findings from the ESRC Public Services Programme'
  
  
• John P. 'Comprehensive Performance Assessment: efficiency versus fairness?' Submission to Oxford Policy Institute’s Policy Briefs, February 2008
  
  
• John P. and Johnson M. 'Is there still a public service ethos?' 24th British Social Attitudes Survey, National Centre for Social Research (NatCen)
  
  
• Boyne G.A., James O., John P. and Petrovsky N. Executive Succession in English Local Government'. Public Money and Management, forthcoming
  
  
• Jennings W. and John P. 'Punctuations and Turning points in British politics? The Policy Agenda of the Queen's Speech, 1940-2005'
  
  
• Boyne G.A., James O., John P. and Petrovsky N. 'Does political change affect top management turnover? An analysis of English local authorities.' Paper prepared for presentation at the British Academy of Management Annual Conference, University of Warwick, September 13, 2007
  
  
• Boyne G.A., James O., John P. and Petrovsky N. 'Satisfied consumers, loyal voters: voter reaction to incumbent performance in Englishlocal governments, 1999-2006.' Paper revised for presentation at the Public Administration Committee Annual Conference, Belfast, September 5, 2007 and at the EPOP Conference, Bristol, September 9, 2007
  
  
• Jennings W. and John P. 'Error correction in policy / opinion dynamics: the most important problem and the executive agenda in the United Kingdom 1959-2001.' Paper for presentation at the American Political Science Association meeting, Chicago, 30 August to 2 September 2007. Panel: 14-8 Comparative Studies of Policy Agendas
  
  
• Gains F. and John P. 'Bureaucratic decision making in institutional reform: a test of the 'bureau shaping' hypothesis.' Presentation to the American Political Science Association meeting, Chicago, 30th August to 2nd September 2007
  
  
• John P. (2007) 'The Three Exit, Three Voice, and Loyalty Framework: a Test with Survey Data on Local Services'. Political Studies, forthcoming
  
  
• Dowding K. and John P. (2007) 'The Value of Choice in Public Policy.' Public Administration, forthcoming
  
  
• Askew R., John P. and Liu H. 'Experimenting for innovation: testing out design experiments with a drugs policy intervention in Wigan.' Presentation to the Simon Academy, University of Manchester, 18-24 June 2007
  
  
• Jennings W. and John P. (2007) 'Error correction in public policy: public opinion and policy agendas in the United Kingdom, 1959-2001'
  
  
• John P. (2007) 'Double devolution - empowering neighbourhoods.' Presentation to the LGA conference - the future of public services - Manchester, January 2007
  
  
• John P. (2007) 'Making representative democracy more representative. Can new forms of citizen governance in the UK open up democracy?'
  
  
• Dowding K. and John P. (2006) 'The Value of Choice in Public Policy'
  
  
• John P. and Musson S. (2006) 'Networks and Regional Governance: the Integration of Partnership bodies as an Indicator of Regional Cohesion'
  
  
• Brannan T. and John P. (2006) 'How different are telephoning and canvassing? A Get Out The Vote field experiment in the UK 2005 General Election'
  
  
• Campbell R., Dowding K. and John P. 'The Multi-Dimensionality of Social Capital and its Relationship to Exit and Voice'. Paper for presentation at the 2006 American Political Science Association meeting, Philadelphia
  
  
• John P., Margetts H., Rowland D. and Weir S. (2006) 'The BNP: the roots of its appeal'. Published by Democratic Audit, Human Rights Centre, University of Essex
  
  
• Dowding K. and John P.'The three exit, three voice, and loyalty model: a test with survey data on local services'. Draft paper for the Political Studies Association meeting, Reading, April 2006
  
  
• John P. (2006) 'The Policy Agendas Project: a Review'. Journal of European Public Policy, 13(7), 975-986
  
  
• Brannan T., Durose C., John P. and Wolman H. 'Assessing best practice as a means of innovation'. Prepared for presentation at the Annual Conference of the Urban Affairs Association, Montreal, Canada, April 22, 2006
  
  
• John P., Larsen H. and Liu H. 'Comparing Executive-led Policy Agendas in the USA and UK'. Paper presented at the 2006 annual meeting of the The Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago
  
  
• John P. 'Why study urban politics?' Presentation to the Political Studies Association Conference 2006, Reading, 3 - 6 April 2006
  
  
• James O. and John P., 'Performance Information and Electoral Support for Incumbent Local Governments'
  
  
• Margetts H., John P. and Weir S., 'Latent Support for the Far-Right in British Politics: The BNP and UKIP in the 2004 European and London Elections', Paper to PSA EPOP conference, University of Oxford, September 10-12 2004-08-14
  
  
• John P. and Stoker G. (2005), 'Design experiments: a programme for policy learning and evaluation'
  
  
• John P. (2005), 'Methodologies and Research Paradigms in Urban Political Science', Paper presented at the European Consortium of Political Research, General Conference, Budapest, 8-10 September 2005, Panel 1 in the Section on Methodology: ‘Solving small-N problems by focusing on sub-national units’
  
  
• John P., Stoker G. and Gains F. (2005), 'Explaining bureaucratic attitudes to political control: the reform of the English local government executive in 2000'
  
  
• John P. and Brannan T. (2005), 'How to mobilise the electorate: lessons from the University of Manchester ‘Get Out the Vote’ experiment'
  
  
• John P. (2006) 'Explaining policy change: the impact of the media, public opinion and political violence on urban budgets in England'. Forthcoming in the Journal of European Public Policy
  
  

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Data for Replication

Most datasets are available from the author peter.john@manchester.ac.uk or at the UK Data Archive.

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