Professor EmeritusAllan McConnell

Allan McConnell is a political scientist whose main interests lie in various aspects of public policy making. He is particularly interested in how political factors (large P and small p) shape public policy, rather than us assuming that policy responses are purely 'rational'. This interest has taken him into research that addresses issues such as responses to crises and disasters, policy success/failure, policy evaluation, wicked policy problems, placebo policies, hidden policy agendas and the politics of policy inaction. The common theme in all is that we can better understand what governments choose to do (and not), if we place policy making in the contexts of governments having to juggle with and trade off many different imperatives e.g. addressing the policy problem 'on the ground' vs. addressing public perceptions of the problem; forcefully tackling policy problem vs. token interventions with low risk of backfiring on policy agendas. Much of this research speaks to the issue of 'good politics but bad policy'.

Allan was Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Associate Dean Research for the period 2015-2018. He was also the University ERA Steward for Peer Review disciplines for ERA 2018. In 2013-14 he was Acting Head of the School of Social and Political Sciences, and previously in 2012 was Chair of the Department of Government and International Relations.