Jack Liddall

Politics and International Studies

Jack is an ESRC-funded PhD candidate in the Department of Politics and International Studies. He will be submitting his thesis this year and taking up a position with NATO in September. The past three years of Jack's PhD have included roles as a Research Assistant at the Centre for Geopolitics and the Bennett Institute (now School) for Public Policy. He has also worked as a researcher both in the University of Edinburgh's Department of Politics and International Relations and the University of Glasgow's Centre for Public Policy. His expert specialisms span devolution, territorial politics, foreign affairs and parliamentary studies.

Alongside research, Jack has been a Lecturer for the Council on International Educational Exchange and part of the Convening Committee for the Political Studies Association's Specialist Group on Parliaments. Prior to his PhD, Jack achieved a Distinction in his MPhil in Politics and International Studies, which he also undertook at St. John's College, Cambridge. Before studying in England, Jack completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, which is where Jack was born and bred. He graduated with a First Class MA (Hons) in History and Politics.

Jack's research offers solutions to poor accountability in an era of collapsing public trust in democracy. In particular, his research investigates the major intergovernmental policy decisions made between the UK's four nations, often behind closed doors and beyond the reach of parliaments and the public. Through an analysis of hundreds of parliamentary transcripts and with nearly 100 interviews with senior politicians and civil servants, this research unearths the major accountability deficits in the UK's system. Moreover, through comparative fieldwork in Canada, India and South Africa, Jack's research also offers practical, evidence-based reforms to prevent unaccountable governance in the UK and retain trust in democratic processes.