Tracing the Political : Depoliticisation, Governance and the State

Over the past two decades politicians have delegated many political decisions to expert agencies or ‘quangos’, and portrayed the associated issues, like monetary or drug policy, as technocratic or managerial. At the same time an increasing number of important political decisions are being removed from democratic public debate altogether, leading many commentators to argue that they are part of a ‘crisis of democracy’, marking the ‘end of politics’.

Tracing the political uses a broad range of international case studies to chart the politicising and depoliticising dynamics that shape debates about the future of governance and the liberal democratic state. The book is part of the New perspectives in policy and politics series, and will be an important text for students of politics and policy, as well as researchers and policy makers.

Matthew Flinders is Founding Director of the Sir Bernard Crick Centre for the Public Understanding of Politics at the University of Sheffield – the first research centre of its kind in the world. He is also Chair of the UK Political Studies Association and a member of the board of the Academy of Social Sciences. In recent years his research and writing have focused on (amongst other issues) the rise of anti-politics, the mental wellbeing of politicians and models of democracy. He has written and presented a number of documentaries for the BBC and frequently writes for newspapers, magazines and websites around the world and currently holds a Professorial Fellowship within the House of Commons.

ESRC Future Research Leaders Fellow at the University of Sheffield Department of Politics.