Alan Renwick joined UCL in September 2015. His expertise lies mainly in the areas of electoral systems, referendums, and other modes of engaging the public in decision-making processes, such as citizens’ assemblies. His research is comparative: besides the UK, his recent projects have included all European democracies as well as New Zealand, Japan, and Canada.

 

Alan works with policy-makers on a range of issues. He became a source of authoritative, impartial evidence during the UK’s electoral system referendum of 2011. He has provided evidence to parliamentary select committees on a range of topics, including electoral reform, reform of the House of Lords, and provision allowing the recall of MPs. He is currently engaged with those interested in understanding how to improve the quality of information available during election and referendum campaigns and how to bring a more deliberative approach to politics. Outside the UK, he has also provided advice and participated in debates in a range of settings, including Egypt, Jordan, Hong Kong, and Jersey.

 

Before coming to UCL, Alan was based at the Universities of Oxford and Reading. He obtained his doctorate, on processes of institutional design in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland during transition from communism, in 2004. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at New College, Oxford from 2003 until 2008 and a Departmental Lecturer in Comparative Politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations, Oxford, from 2005 to 2006. He was based at the University of Reading, latterly as Reader and Associate Professor of Comparative Politics, between 2008 and 2015.