Dr Sophie Moxon
Associate Lecturer

Profile

Biography

Sophie Moxon joined the University of York as an Associate Lecturer in Public Policy in September 2022. She has recently completed her PhD thesis titled: ‘Can money buy access? Political finance contributions and the impact on interest group access to legislative committees’. This research was funded by the ESRC White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership. She has recently worked with Dr Eva Heims on her ESRC-funded project on regulatory capture. Her research interests are in representational and participatory inequality, political finance, interest group politics, and public policy.

 Sophie Moxon holds a PhD in Politics and a MA from the University of York, and a BA in Politics from the University of East Anglia.

Research

Overview

Sophie is in the process of publishing her PhD thesis titled ‘Can Money Buy Access?’. This research used quantitative methods to examine the impact of political finance contributions at the consultation stage of the policy process in several liberal democratic countries. The research built upon existing theories on financial dependence and corporate lobbying to create new frameworks to examine how political donations could influence interest group access to legislative committees. Sophie plans to expand upon this research to further broaden our understanding of elite influence within the agenda-setting and consultation process. 

Sophie also works with Dr Eva Heims’ on her ESRC-funded project on regulatory capture. In this project, they challenge traditional notions of how, and to what extent, special interests influence regulatory decision-making by re-evaluating how we conceptualise and theorise capture.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Introduction to Democratic Politics

Postgraduate

• Principles of Policy Advice