Profile

Biography

Adrian Leftwich (BA(Hons) Cape Town, PhD York.) is an Honorary Fellow in the Department of Politics and is the Research Director of a multi-stakeholder research and policy programme: The Developmental Leadership Programme at www.dlprog.org.  He studied in the Universities of Cape Town and York (where he obtained his PhD) and has taught at the Universities of Cape Town, York, Lancaster and Reading in the United Kingdom. In addition to a wide range of articles in major journals, his monograph and edited publications include South Africa. Economic Growth and Political Change (1974); Redefining Politics (1983); Democracy and Development (1996); States of Development (2000) and What is Politics? (1984 and 2004).

Research

Overview

Dr Leftwich has just completed five years as co-director of the international research consortium on Improving Institutions for Pro-poor Growth (IPPG) (http://www.ippg.org.uk), funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). He has been working recently on state business relations in Malawi and on modifications in the theory and practice of developmental states. His current research interests focus on the roles which leaders, elites and coalitions play in the political processes which drive or undermine sustainable growth, political stability and inclusive social development.

Current projects

• Henry Chingaipe: The politics  of state-business  relations in Malawi and Botswana
• Daniel Appiah: The politics of land administration reform in Ghana

Supervision

Dr Leftwich welcomes proposals from potential research students on the following topics: Developmental states; governance and development; institutional analysis; states and state building; democracy and development.

Publications

Selected publications

• 2010. 'Beyond Institutions: Rethinking the Role of Leaders, Elites and Coalitions in the Institutional Formation of Developmental States and Strategies'. Forum for Development Studies 37 (PDF , 120kb) (1), pp.93-111
• 2009. 'Analysing the politics of state-business relations. A methodological concept note on the historical institutionalist approach', Discussion Paper no 23, IPPG
• 2008. 'Developmental states, effective states and poverty reduction: the primacy of politics', United Nations Research Institute for Social development (UNRISD)
• 2007. 'The political approach to institutional formation, maintenance and change', IPPG Discussion Paper no 14
• 2007. 'The politics of state-business relations in Malawi', Discussion Paper no 7, IPPG
• 2007. 'Theorising the state', in P. Burnell and V. Randall (eds.), Politics in the Developing World, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
• 2005. 'Politics in Command: Development Studies and the Rediscovery of Social Science', New Political Economy, Vol. 10, 4.
• 2005. 'Democracy and development: Is there an Institutional Incompatibility?', Democratization, Vol. 12, 5.
• 2004. What is Politics? Cambridge, Polity Press
• 2000. States of Development Cambridge, Polity Press

External activities

Memberships

• Sits on the ESRC Commissioning Panel for research into Non-Governmental Public Action
• Member of the International Expert panel of the Swiss National Science Foundation, assessing research into democracy and democratization
• Member of the Advisory Board of the DFID-funded international Research Consortium on African Politics, Power and the State