Keith Dowding

Keith Martin Dowding (born 6 May 1960) 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, 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
Dowding obtained his BA in Philosophy and Politics from Keele University in 1982, and a DPhil from Nuffield College, Oxford University in 1987.

Career
Dowding began editing for SAGE Publishing in 1996. He was in the Government Department at the London School of Economics in 2006.

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

Theory
Dowding works in political philosophy and mainstream empirical political science. 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.

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”. 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.

The Careers of Cabinet Ministers
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:
 * ISBN 978-0-415-63346-8; ISBN 978-1-138-23819-0.
 * ISBN 978-1-922-14400-3.
 * ISBN 978-0-415-63346-8; ISBN 978-1-138-23819-0.
 * ISBN 978-1-922-14400-3.
 * ISBN 978-0-415-63346-8; ISBN 978-1-138-23819-0.
 * ISBN 978-1-922-14400-3.
 * ISBN 978-0-415-63346-8; ISBN 978-1-138-23819-0.
 * ISBN 978-1-922-14400-3.
 * ISBN 978-1-922-14400-3.

Analytical Account of Freedom and Rights
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:
 * Reprinted in
 * Reprinted in
 * Reprinted in
 * Reprinted in
 * Reprinted in



Work on Amartya Sen
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'). This research was supported by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Board.

Policy Agendas in Australia
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.


 * ISBN 978-3-319-40804-0

Books

 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * Volume IV: Bureaucracy, constitutional arrangements and the state