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My research interests lie in British politics, political economy and political thought. I continue to work in all these areas. I am the author of nine books, and the joint author or editor of another 22 books, as well as 100 contributions to edited books, and 60 academic journal articles. In relation to the broad field of political studies I have always regarded myself first and foremost as a political economist.

My research interests and publications have been quite diverse, but a common thread is the attempt to use a political economy approach, seeking to understand politics by exploring the complex interrelationships between state and economy, and the ideas, policies and institutions through which these are expressed. Political economy currently has various meanings, but my own approach has been primarily historical, institutionalist, and comparative, and has also sought wherever possible to be interdisciplinary.

My research has had three main, often overlapping, strands. The first is the application of a political economy approach to the study of British politics in four linked books which I have published over the last thirty years: The Conservative Nation (1974), Britain in Decline: Economic Policy, Political Strategy and the British State (1981), The Free Economy and the Strong State: The Politics of Thatcherism (1988) and between Europe and America: the Future of British Politics (2003). These books, together with associated papers in journals and edited collections, have attempted to understand the shifting agendas, issues, outcomes and debates in British politics through an analysis of the political economy of the British state, exploring the historical, institutionalist, and ideological contexts which have shaped it.

A second strand, in political theory and political ideology, which has run parallel to this work, has analysed the main doctrines of political economy and their relationship to the ideologies of the modern era. I published a preliminary version of this in An Introduction to Modern Social and Political Thought (1981), and have developed it further in Hayek: the iron Cage of Liberty (1996), as well as in papers on neoliberalism, neo-conservatism and socialism.

A third strand has explored a number of theoretical and applied issues in political economy, including ownership, stakeholding, corporate governance, and assets and human capital. This research attracted funding from the Leverhulme Trust, the AngloGerman Foundation and the ESRC, and has issued in a number of publications.

My current work is focused on the politics of the welfare state and the politics of austerity. I am part of a research team in Cambridge funded by the Philomathia foundation which is comparing the implementation of austerity policies in the EU.