Dr Mark Pennington, BA (London) Ph.D (London)
Reader in Public Policy and Political Economy
Location: Arts One 2.25email: m.pennington@qmul.ac.uk
Phone: 020 7882 8594
Office hours:
Tuesday 3-5pm
Research interests:
My research interests lie at the intersection of politics, philosophy and economics with an emphasis on the implications of theories of bounded rationality and imperfect knowledge for institutional design and the evaluation of socio-economic systems. I have a particular interest in the works of Hayek, public choice theory and related elements of the classical liberal tradition. My earlier work focussed on the political economy of environmental planning and regulation and explored the potential for property rights and market-based approaches to environmental problems. My more recent work has explored the implications of bounded rationality in the context of contemporary theories of deliberative democracy. Specifically, I have sought to develop a Hayekian/classical liberal critique of Habermasian democratic theory. I have also written a series of papers examining the concept of social capital in the context of environmental policy and more widely in debates surrounding the maintenance of civil norms in commercial society.
My new book is called Robust Political Economy: Classical Liberalism and the Future of Public Policy, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar (2011). This work examines challenges to market liberal theory derived from neo-classical economics, communitarian political theory and egalitarian ethical theory and applies the lessons learned in the context of the welfare state, international development and environmental protection.
I would welcome PhD students interested in any aspect of the following:
- The political economy of public sector reform
- Market liberalism and public policy
- Green political economy/theory
- The political economy of regulation
- Public choice theory
- Debates in post-positivist public policy
- New institutionalism and public policy
Postgraduate supervision:
I am currently supervising PhD's on the following topics:
- Classical Liberalism, Spontaneous Order and Multiculturalism
- Classical Liberalism and Contemporary Democratic Theory
- Understanding Greek -Turkish Relations: A Rational Choice Approach
- The Social Construction of Climate Change Policy
- Canadian Agriculture and Government Failure: A Public Choice Approach
- Knowledge, Incentives and the Governance of Global Trade
- Austrian Political Economy and Collective Goods
Publications:
Single Authored Books/Monographs
Robust Political Economy: Classical Liberalism and the Future of Public Policy. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2011. (US book launch Video)
Liberating the Land: The Case for Private Land Use Planning, London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 2002.
Planning and the Political Market: Public Choice and the Politics of Government Failure, London: The Athlone Press, 2000.
Conservation and the Countryside: By Quango or Market? London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 1996.
Edited Books
Comparative Politics, 2009 (with J Bara) (eds), London: Sage.
Co-authored Books
Rescuing Social Capital from Social Democracy, London: Institute of Economic Affairs (with John Meadowcroft), 2008
Journal Articles
Democracy and the Deliberative Conceit, Critical Review, 22 (2-3): 159-184, 2010
Bonding and Bridging: Social Capital and the Communitarian Critique of Liberal Markets, 2008, Review of Austrian Economics, Vol.21, No.2, pp.119-133.
The Dynamics of Interventionism: A Case Study of the British Land Use Planning System, 2006, Advances in Austrian Economics, Vol.8, 335-356.
Sustainable Development and British Land Use Planning: A Hayekian Perspective, Town Planning Review, 2006 Vol. 77, No.1, pp.75-92.
Liberty, Markets and Environmental Values, The Independent Review, 2005, Vol.10, No.1, pp.39-57.
Citizen Participation, the ‘Knowledge Problem’ and Urban Land Use Planning: An Austrian Perspective on Institutional Choice, Review of Austrian Economics, 2004, Vol.17, Nos.2-3, pp.213-231.
Markets and the New Urbanism, Journal of Markets and Morality, 2003, Vol.6, No.1, pp.227-234.
Land Use Planning: Public or Private Choice, Economic Affairs, 2003, Vol.23, No.2, pp.10-15.
Environmental Markets versus Environmental Deliberation: A Hayekian Critique of Green Political Economy, New Political Economy, 2001, Vol.6, No.2 , pp.171-190.
(with Yvonne Rydin) Discourses of the Prisoners Dilemma: The Role of the Press in Local Environmental Policy, Environmental Politics, 2001, Vol.10, No.3, pp.48-71.
Public Choice Theory and the Politics of Urban Containment: Voter-Centred versus Special Interest Explanations, Government and Policy: Environment and Planning C, 2000, Vol.18, No.2, pp.145-162.
(with Yvonne Rydin) Researching Social Capital in Local Environmental Policy Contexts, Policy and Politics, 2000, Vol.28, No.2, pp.33-49
(with Yvonne Rydin) Local Environmental Planning, the Collective Action Problem and the Potential of Social Capital, Local Environment, 2000, Vol.5, No.2, pp.153-169.
Free Market Environmentalism and the Limits of Land Use Planning, Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, 1999, Vol.1 No.1, pp.43-59
Budgets, Bureaucrats and the Containment of Urban England Environmental Politics, 1997, Vol.6, No.4. pp.76-107.
Book Chapters
'Social Capital: the Achilles Heel of Classical Liberalism?' in James, M (ed) Classical Liberalism in the 21st Century: Essays in Honour of Norman P. Barry, Buckingham: University of Buckingham Press, 2009
'Hayekian Liberalism and Sustainable Development.' in Gough, S, Stables, A., (eds) Sustainability and Security within Liberal Societies , London: Routledge, 2008.
'Free Market Environmentalism versus Environmental Market Socialism.' in Lai, L.(ed.) Understanding and Implementing Sustainable Development, Nova Sciences, 2003.
'Knowledge Decisions and Urban Form: Implications from the Socialist Calculation Debate.' in Urban Sprawl in Western Europe and the United States, Richardson, H.W., Bae, C. (2004) (eds), Aldershot: Ashgate.
'A Hayekian Liberal Critique of Collaborative Planning.' in Allmendinger,P. & Tewdr-Jones, M. Planning Futures, London: Routledge, 2001.
Undergraduate teaching:
Postgraduate teaching:
- Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods
- Theories of the Policy-Making Process