Prof Paul Webb

Biography

Paul Webb (BA Nottingham 1977-1980, MSc London School of Economic 1980-1982, PhD European University Institute 1983-1986) is Professor of Politics at the University of Sussex, and has held a number of previous and visiting positions in Britain and abroad, including at the Australian National University. He is an elected Academician of Social Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

His research interests focus on representative democracy, particularly party and electoral politics. He is author or editor of numerous publications, including:

• The Modern British Party System (Sage Publications, 2000), 2nd edition forthcoming with Oxford University Press.
• Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Societies (Oxford University Press, 2002, with David Farrell and Ian Holliday)
• The Presidentialization of Politics: A Comparative Study of Modern Democracies (Oxford University Press, 2005, with Thomas Poguntke - revised edition 2007).

His latest book is Gender and the Conservative Party: From Iron Ladies to Kitten Heels (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, with Sarah Childs) . He is currently co-editor of the journal Party Politics and a former editor of Representation (1999-2007). He has regularly contributed to media coverage of politics, especially for BBC television, and national and local radio (see media profile webpage).

Role

Paul Webb was Head of Politics & Contemporary European Studies from 2006 to 2009, and is currently Director of Research & Knowledge Exchange in the School of Law, Politics & Sociology.

In 2009-10, he was on research leave while working on two externally funded projects: (1) a Leverhulme Fellowship on Representative Politics and Democratic Disconnect (focussing on citizens' attitudes towards political participation), and (2) an ESRC grant on Gender and the Conservative Party (with Professor Sarah Childs of Bristol University). In 2011-12 he was funded by the British Academy to work on a sequel study to Representative Politics and Democratic Disconnect. He is also writing the second edition of The Modern British Party System for Oxford University Press.

He currently convenes the first year undergraduate core course on Explanatory Concepts in Political Science and the final year undergraduate options in The Politics of Change: The Thatcher Years, and UK Parties and Voters. 

Community and Business

Paul Webb has been consultant or advisor to a number of external bodies including the Hansard Society, The McDougall Trust, the Department of Constitutional Affairs, the (Phillips) Inquiry into the Funding of Political Parties, the House of Commons Select Committee on Political and Constitutional Reform, the National Democratic Institute (Washington DC) and the Institut für Deutsches und Internationales Parteienrecht¿und Parteienforschung (University of Düsseldorf).

He has regularly contributed to media coverage of politics, especially for BBC television, and national and local radio (see media profile webpage).

Outside the university, Paul Webb is a former trustee of the educational charity, The McDougall Trust, and was a governor at St. Philip's RC Primary School in Arundel, West Sussex from 2003-2009 (Chair, 2004-2007).

Paul Webb's research interests lie in the field of representative democracy, with a particular focus on British and comparative party politics, and electoral processes. Along with Sarah Childs, of the University of Bristol, he was awarded £476,000 by the Economic & Social Research Council to conduct research on Gender and the Conservative Party. The project made use of qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate the position of women in the contemporary Conservative Party, the party's evolving policies towards women in society, and the impact of these policies on party competition. The project was completed in 2010 and led to the publications of Sex, Gender and the Conservative Party: From Iron Lady to Kitten Heels (Palgrave Macmillan 2011), along with numerous journal articles, conference papers and sundry commentaries for the media and blogs.

Since 2009, he has been engaged on work on Representative Politics & Democratic Disconnect, a research project on citizen attitudes to political participation. This research has been funded through a £40,000 Leverhulme Research Fellowship award and a smaller British Academy grant. Data has been gathered through IPSOS-Mori focus groups and a specially commissioned YouGov survey of adults. It is expected that this will generate conference papers, journal articles and in due course a monograph.

He is also currently also engaged on writing a second edition of The Modern British Party System, which will be published by Oxford University Press after the next general election.

Paul Webb is coeditor (along with David Farrell of Manchester University and Ken Janda of Northwestern University, Chicago) of the international journal Party Politics (www.partypolitics.com). 

Paul Webb has extensive experience of designing, convening and teaching programmes and courses at Universities in Britain and Australia. His teaching has taken in  Comparative, European and British Politics, Political Thought, French and Italian Politics, Research Methods, and Party Politics. At Sussex he is currently responsible for convening and lecturing the first course on Explanatory Concepts in Political Science, the final year undergraduate options on The Thatcher Years, and Parties and Voters in the UK, and the MA option Parties and Party Systems in Comparative Perspective. 

Student Consultation

Autumn Term 2012-13:

Mondays, 2.30-3.30pm

Wednesdays: 12.45-1.45pm

Webb, Paul (2013) Who is willing to participate? Dissatisfied democrats, stealth democrats and populists in the United Kingdom. European Journal of Political Research. n/a-n/a. ISSN 0304-4130

Childs, Sarah and Webb, Paul (2012) Have the Conservatives been feminised? Sociology Review, 22 (1). pp. 16-20. ISSN 0959-8499 (Submitted)

Webb, Paul (2012) Who is willing to deliberate, and how? Dissatisfied democrats, stealth democrats and populists in the UK: SEI Working Paper 131. Working Paper. Sussex European Institute, Sussex.

Webb, Paul, Poguntke, Thomas and Kolodny, Robin (2012) The presidentialization of party leadership? Evaluating party leadership and party government in the democratic world. In: Comparative political leadership. Palgrave studies in political leadership . Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, pp. 77-98. ISBN 9780230296497

Webb, Paul and Childs, Sarah (2012) Gender politics and conservatism: The view from the Conservative Party grassroots. Government And Opposition, 47 (1). pp. 21-48. ISSN 1477-7053

Webb, Paul and Childs, Sarah (2012) Gender politics and conservatism: the view from the British Conservative Party grassroots. Government and Opposition, 47 (1). pp. 21-48. ISSN 1477-7053

Childs, Sarah and Webb, Paul (2011) Sex, Gender and the Conservative Party: From Iron Lady to Kitten Heels. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0230279001

Webb, Paul and Childs, Sarah (2011) Wets and Dries Resurgent? Intra-Party Alignments Among Contemporary Conservative Party Members. Parliamentary Affairs. ISSN 0031-2290

Webb, Paul (2011) Should the Prime Minster be directly elected? Written evidence to The House of Commons Select Committee on Political and Constitutional Reform inquiry into the role and powers of the Prime Minister, February 2011. Parliament, London.

Webb, Paul, Bale, Tim and Taggart, Paul (2011) Deliberative Versus Parliamentary Democracy in the UK: An Experimental Study. Working Paper. Sussex European Institute, University of Sussex, Falmer, UK.

Webb, Paul (2010) Political parties and democracy in the UK. In: Political parties and democracy, volume 2: Europe. Political Parties in Context . Praeger-Greenwood, Westport. ISBN 9780275987060

Bale, Tim and Webb, Paul (2010) The Conservative Party. In: Britain at the Polls 2010. Sage. ISBN 9781849208451

Webb, Paul (2009) The failings of political parties: reality or perception? Representation, 45 (3). pp. 265-275. ISSN 0034-4893

Childs, Sarah, Webb, Paul and Marthaler, Sally (2009) The Feminisation of the Conservative Parliamentary Party: Party Members' Attitudes. Political Quarterly, 80 (2). pp. 204-213. ISSN 0032-3179

Webb, Paul (2008) The attitudinal assimilation of Europe by the Conservative parliamentary party. British Politics, 3 (4). pp. 427-444. ISSN 1746-918X

Webb, Paul and White, Stephen (2007) Party politics in new democracies. Comparative Politics . Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York. ISBN 9780199289653

Poguntke, Thomas and Webb, Paul (2007) The presidentialization of politics in democratic societies: a framework for analysis. In: The presidentialization of politics: a comparative study of modern democracies. Comparative politics . Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 1-25. ISBN 978-0199218493

Webb, Paul (2007) Democracy and political parties. Discussion Paper. Hansard Society, London.

Bale, Tim, Taggart, Paul and Webb, Paul (2006) You can't always get what you want: populism and the power inquiry. Political Quarterly, 77 (2). pp. 195-203. ISSN 0032-3179

Webb, Paul and Fisher, J (2006) 'Elezioni e professionalizzazione: il caso del New Labour'. In: 'Partiti e Sistemi di Partito: Il Cartel Party e Oltre'. il Mulino. ISBN 88-15-11001-1

Webb, Paul and Kolodny, Robin (2006) Professional staff in political parties. In: Handbook of Party Politics. Sage Publications.

Webb, Paul (2005) The continuing advance of the minor parties. In: Britain votes 2005. Hansard Society Series in Politics and Governemnt . Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York, pp. 101-119. ISBN 9780198569404

Webb, Paul and Poguntke, Thomas (2005) The presindentialization of contemporary democratic politics: Evidence, causes and consequences. In: The Presindentialization of Politics: A Comparative Study of Modern Democracies. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-199-25201-7

Poguntke, Thomas and Webb, Paul, eds. (2005) The presidentialization of democracy: a comparative study of comparative politics. Comparative politics . Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York. ISBN 9780199252015

Webb, Paul (2004) Party responses to the changing electoral market in Britain. In: Political parties and electoral change: party responses to electoral markets. Sage Publications, London, pp. 20-48. ISBN 9780761947196

Webb, Prof Paul, Fisher, J, Scully, R and Broughton, D, eds. (2004) The British Parties and Elections Review, 14. FRANK CASS.

Webb, Paul (2003) Campaigns. In: Routledge encyclopedia of government and politics. Routledge, London. ISBN 9780415276221

Webb, Paul (2003) Elections. In: Encyclopedia of Government and Politics. Routledge, London. ISBN 9780415276221

Webb, Paul (2003) Electoral systems. In: Encyclopedia of Government and Politics. Routledge, London. ISBN 9780415276221

Webb, Paul and Fisher, Justin (2003) Professionalizing the Millbank tendency: The political sociology of New Labour's employees. Politics.

Webb, Prof Paul, Rallings, C, Tonge, J and Scully, R, eds. (2003) The British Parties and Elections Review, 13. FRANK CASS.

Webb, Prof Paul and Lewis, P, eds. (2003) Pan-European Perspectives on Parties and Party Systems. Leiden: Brill.

Webb, Prof Paul, Bennie, L, Rallings, C and Tonge, J, eds. (2002) The British Parties and Elections Review, 12. FRANK CASS.

Webb, Paul, Farrell, Michelle and Farrell, D (2002) L'organizzazione dei partiti politici nelle campagne elletorali. In: Il Circuito Politico-Mediale. Rubbettino.

Webb, Paul (2001) Parties and party systems: modernisation, regulation and diversity. Parliamentary Affairs, 54 (2). pp. 308-321. ISSN 0031-2290

Webb, Paul (2001) Election. In: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica, inc., Chicago. ISBN 9780852297872

Webb, Paul (2001) Political parties in Western Europe: linkage, legitimacy and reform. Representation, 37 (3-4). pp. 203-214. ISSN 0034-4893

Webb, Paul (2001) The United Kingdom. European Journal of Political Research Data Yearbook 2000.

Webb, Paul (2000) The modern British party system. Sage Publications, London, viii + 312 pp. ISBN 9780803979444

Webb, Paul D (1996) Apartisanship and anti-party sentiment in the United Kingdom: correlates and constraints. European Journal of Political Research, 29 (3). pp. 365-382. ISSN 03044130

Childs, Sarah, Evans, Elizabeth and Webb, Paul 'Quicker than a consultation at the hairdressers: abortion and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008'. New Genetics & Society. ISSN 1469-9915 (In Press)

Webb, Paul and Poguntke, Thomas The presidentialization of politics thesis defended. Parliamentary Affairs. ISSN 0031-2290