Institute of Development Studies

The Governance Team brings together political scientists, sociologists, lawyers and economists to work in collaboration with scholars and institutional partners in Asia, Africa and Latin America on cutting edge governance themes. We aspire as a Team to produce top quality research that has both scholarly merit and policy relevance.

Our research revolves around four main themes: state effectiveness; collective action and public policy; politics, law and rights; and security, conflict and fragile states. In addition to these core themes we have projects on the political economy of aid and gender and institutional change.

A significant portion of the Team's recent research was carried out through the Development Research Centre for the Future State and its main thematic areas of the state and private investment, the politics of state capacity, collective action and service delivery.

All our research focuses on how the relationship between politics, institutions and collective action shapes governance outcomes through policies that promote economic development, poverty reduction and democracy. This applies at the national level, where our research focuses on the prospects of successful development in a wide range of state contexts, including fragile states, and at the international level where our research considers how global regulatory institutions affect state performance and forms of collective action.

The Team has a high profile presence in the IDS teaching programme, a growing number of DPhil students and a thriving MA in Governance and Development. In addition to our research and teaching, we also engage in advisory work on the politics of development with international development agencies and national policymakers to maintain the profile and policy relevance of our work.

Further Information

Please contact Caroline Martin, Governance Team Administrative Co-ordinator