UCL Political Science Events

Democratic Health Worldwide

The health of democracy around the world is widely seen as being in decline. Many countries are seeing a surge in authoritarian leadership, support for extremist parties, weakening institutional checks and balances, and crackdowns on freedom of protest. The second Trump administration in the United States has spotlighted these trends, raising fundamental questions about the future of democracy. What are some of the root causes of the global democratic backsliding? What role do domestic and international courts play in upholding the rule of law? How can individuals and activists organise amidst restrictions on freedom of movement and assembly? What can be done to strengthen democratic systems?Meet the speakers Prof Brian Klaas, Professor of Global Politics at School of European Languages, Culture and Society-Centre for Multidisciplinary and Intercultural Inquiry (SELCS-CMII), UCL Dr Malu Gatto, Associate Professor of Latin American Politics at the Institute of the Americas, UCL. Dr Michal Ovádek, Assistant Professor in European Institutions, Politics and Policy, at the Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy, UCL. Prof Tarun Khaitan, Professor (Chair) of Public Law at LSE Law School Dr Katharina Lawall, Lecturer in Comparative Politics at University of Reading. Chair: Prof Alan Renwick, Professor of Democratic Politics in the UCL Department of Political Science, and Deputy Director of the UCL Constitution Unit. Mentioned in the disucssion: Killing a Constitution with a Thousand Cuts: Executive Aggrandizement and Party-state Fusion in India, https://www.degruyterbrill.com/docume... Care conscription as a progressive answer to the belonging question https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpo... Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us https://share.google/7oRtyidNA1AOO7f6O  Resistance to Gender Quotas in Latin America https://share.google/u3HkdbxmzEgCwPCoN Recorded 2 October 2025 

Racial Inequalities in UK Healthcare

Meet the speakersProf. Habib Naqvi MBE is the Chief Executive of the NHS Race and Health Observatory. Previously he worked at the Department of Health and Social Care, where he acted as the Policy Lead on the development of the Equality Delivery System. He also has experience in academia, having been awarded the title of Honorary Visiting Professor of Health Equity at the Queen’s Institute for Medicine, University of Bolton. Recently, he co-chaired the Advisory Board for the UCL Institute of Health Equity’s report titled Structural Racism, Ethnicity and Health Inequalities in London. Dr. Ramya Sheni is a Local Growth Policy & Senior Analysis Adviser with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Prior to her current role, Dr. Sheni was a Research Manager with ClearView Research where, in partnership with the Black Equity Organisation, she co-authored two reports highlighting the Black experience with racism in Britain: Brick Wall After Brick Wall and Systemic Change Required. Her work focuses on marginalised communities, spotlighting Black voices and women’s voices. Ashitha Nagesh is an award-winning BBC News senior journalist and digital reporter, who has served as the BBC News Community Affairs Correspondent for the past two years. She also volunteers as a Senior Fellow with the John Schofield Trust, mentoring young journalists from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds. Ashitha’s reporting has covered numerous issues faced by ethnic minority communities, expanding the reach of these communities’ stories. In particular, she reported on the ethnic minority experience during the Covid-19 pandemic and within the NHS workforce. Chair: Dr. Devina Maru is a GP in Islington and the Clinical Academic lead for MBBS Year 1&2 Primary Care. She is also the UCL Co-Deputy Director Medical Education (Primary Care), Department of Primary Care & Population Health.

Is development possible without fossil fuels?

The COP 29 conference once again highlighted divergences between ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ countries with regards to states’ responsibility to limit their carbon emissions and transition away from fossil fuels. According to many poorer countries, restrictions on fossil fuel production and consumption would constrain economic and social development, a burden which they feel is unfair given that rich countries largely caused climate change. But are fossil fuels really necessary for development? Could the transition away from fossil fuels create opportunities for economic diversification, jobs, innovation, and improvements in public health and energy access? What can and should rich countries do to ensure that poorer countries can develop without reliance on fossil fuels?Meet the speakersRose Mutiso is the Research Director for the Energy for Growth Hub. The Hub’s research and policy network focuses on issues such as improving how we define and measure energy poverty, pragmatic solutions for clean energy technology finance and deployment, and just energy transitions in energy-poor countries. Rose is also the Co-Founder and ex-CEO of the Mawazo Institute—a non-profit research institute based in Kenya which aims to support the next generation of female scholars and thought leaders in East Africa. She was previously a Senior Fellow in the Office of International Climate and Clean Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy, where she co-led DOE’s engagement on technology and policy dimensions of energy access in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Dr Amir Lebdioui is Associate Professor in the Political Economy of Development and the Director of the Technology and Industrialisation for Development (TIDE) Centre at the University of Oxford’s Department for International Development. His research has focused on the economic diversification of resource-dependent nations, green industrial policy and low-carbon innovation. He is the author of Survival of the Greenest: Economic Transformation in a Climate-conscious World, published by Cambridge University Press in 2024. Alache Fisho is Policy Lead, Transition Pathways at the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance (BOGA) Secretariat. She has over 20 years’ experience in energy and extractives, advising governments across Africa, the Pacific, and the Caribbean and as in-house counsel in a large integrated state-owned enterprise. Alache leads BOGA’s engagement with producer countries, particularly in EMDEs geared towards supporting the design and implementation of an evidenced-backed vision of a ‘beyond oil and gas’ economy. She also supports dialogue and peer learning through BOGA’s thematic working groups and wider community of practice. Chair: Julia Tomei is the Deputy Director of the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources and an Associate Professor at the Bartlett School of Environment, Energy & Resources.   Co-organised with UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources 

Lobbying: participatory democracy or crony capitalism?

This seminar demystifies the secret world of consultancy and lobbying. It is an industry which has grown hugely in recent decades, and become an inevitable part of modern policy making. But lobbyists and lobbying are frequently misunderstood. To explain what lobbyists do we have four very senior practitioners, with a wide range of experience between them. Two are consultants, and two in-house lobbyists; two work primarily in the UK, and two engage in consultancy and lobbying worldwide. They will explain the different roles of lobbyists, from communications and reputation management to strategy and policy work. They will also discuss the growing demands for lobbying in the UK to be more tightly regulated: on one estimate, the Lobbying Act 2014 captures only 4 per cent of lobbying activity. Lobbying necessarily informs policy; but by operating largely behind the scenes, does it also undermine democracy?Meet the speakersCharles Lewington OBE is the Chairman of Hanover Communications, which he founded in 1998 after a high-profile career in Downing Street and political journalism. It has grown to more than 200 consultants. He is also President elect of the Public Relations Consultancy Association, representing more than 1,000 agencies in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.Yasmin Diamond CB, Executive Vice President of Global Corporate Affairs at IHG Hotels & Resorts. Yasmin is responsible for all external and internal communications; global government affairs work; and leading IHG’s corporate responsibility strategy. Before joining IHG in 2012, Yasmin was Director of Communications in the Home Office, and before that at DEFRA.Tamasin Cave is the Head of Strategic Communications at Uplift UK. Prior to her current position, she worked with Spinwatch, a non-profit that investigates corporate PR and lobbying, and led the campaign for transparency regulations for lobbyists in the UK. She also co-authored A Quiet Word: Lobbying, Crony Capitalism and Broken Politics in Britain (2015).Chair: Prof David Coen, UCL Pro Vice Provost Global Engagement and Professor of Public Policy

Priorities for the new UK Government: Accountability in British Politics

Meet the speakersSir Rob Behrens was the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman between 2017 and 2024. Prior to this, he held roles including Complaints Commissioner at the Bar Standards Board, Secretary to the Committee on Standards in Public Life, and Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (Office of the Independent Adjudicator) in England and Wales. Greg Clark is the Executive Chair of Warwick University’s Warwick Innovation District and a former politician. During his time as an MP, he held various ministerial portfolios, most notably having been the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy under Theresa May’s premiership. After returning to the backbenches, he served as the Chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee between 2020 and 2024. Kitty Donaldson is the Chief Political Commentator at the i newspaper. Prior to this, she covered politics and the House of Commons for Bloomberg nearly two decades, first as a Political Correspondent, then as UK Political Editor. Chair: Prof. Robert Hazell is Professor of Government and the Constitution in the UCL Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy.