Peter John

King's College London, Department of Political Economy, Faculty Member

University College London, Political Science, Faculty Member

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Papers by Peter John

The Impact of Peer, Politician, and Celebrity Endorsements on Volunteering: A Field Experiment with English Students

Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, 2018

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Rethinking the role of experts and expertise in behavioural public policy

Policy & Politics, 2019

Nudge and behavioural public policy tools have won support from governments across the world for ... more Nudge and behavioural public policy tools have won support from governments across the world for improving the effectiveness of public interventions. Yet nudge still attracts strong criticisms for promoting paternalism and manipulation as legitimate government actions. To move beyond this divide, this paper offers a comprehensive reorientation, which is necessary because the intellectual foundations of the policy are at fault. A more secure foundation can be achieved by expanding the cognitive scope of behavioural policy, and ensuring that it does not rely on the narrow assumption that intuitive reasoning is flawed and that expert advice is always preferable. This shift in the cognitive range of nudge moves behavioural policy toward citizen reflection and initiative, pointing away from expert-led interventions. It amounts to more than incremental advances in nudge practice. As a result, nudge can escape the charge of not respecting individual autonomy. What we call ‘nudge plus’ woul...

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How best to open up local democracy? A randomised experiment to encourage contested elections and greater representativeness in English parish councils

Local Government Studies, 2018

If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination... more If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.

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Performance Information and Electoral Support for Incumbent Local Governments

Abstract This paper explores whether ,publishing performance ,information ,about local public ser... more Abstract This paper explores whether ,publishing performance ,information ,about local public services, an increasing trend in many OECD countries, matters politically by having an effect on incumbent ,local governments’ ,electoral support. We take the opportunity afforded by the ,introduction of a ,system of ,published Comprehensive Performance Assessments (CPAs) of local authorities in England to model,publication as a ‘shock’ to the system. We ,empirically evaluate three models ,of publication ,by considering ,CPA influences alongside other variables including an unpublished ,measure ,of performance change over time, changes in the local tax level, change in local economic conditions and whether,the local incumbent ,is the party of the ,incumbent government ,at the national level. We find ,that although local authorities’ published CPA scores ,are not positively associated with change in incumbents’ vote shares there is an important exception in that bodies in the ,poor performan...

Co-designing behavioural public policy: lessons from the field about how to ‘nudge plus’

Evidence & Policy, 2021

Background: Behavioural public policies, known as nudges, suffer from lack of citizen consent and... more Background: Behavioural public policies, known as nudges, suffer from lack of citizen consent and involvement, which has led to an argument for more reflective nudges, known as ‘nudge plus’. Aims and objectives: How can more citizen reflection be introduced in a way that is not itself top-down and paternalist in spite of good intentions? How might these ‘nudge pluses’ develop on the ground? Methods: This paper reports a mixed-methods case study. Findings: In the case study, there was an intervention that started off as a top-down nudge, using a randomised controlled trial. The nudge then evolved into a bottom-up initiative with citizen input aided by a design lab approach. Discussion and conclusion: One way to address tensions between top-down and bottom-up approaches is to let in the messiness and loss of direct control implied in a design lab, whereby nudge pluses might evolve naturally and without expert direction. The success of the eventual initiative points the way to more des...

format_quoteDespite higher engagement in email opening (47.8%), actual volunteer sign-ups from nudged emails showed significant drop-off, illustrating nudge limitations.format_quote

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When Context Matters: Assessing Geographical Heterogeneity of Get-Out-The-Vote Treatment Effects Using a Population Based Field Experiment

by Paul Widdop and Peter John

The presence of heterogeneity in treatment effects can create problems for researchers employing ... more The presence of heterogeneity in treatment effects can create problems for researchers employing a narrow experimental pool in their research. In particular it is often questioned whether the results of a particular experiment can be extrapolated outside the specific location of the study. In this article, we use a population-based field experiment in order to test the extent to which treatment effects for impersonal mobilisation techniques (direct mail and telephone) are sensitive to where they are carried out (geography) and the context of the election in which they were conducted. We find that on the whole it does not much matter where an experiment is conducted: the treatment effects are to all intents and purposes geographically uniform. This has important implications for the external validity of get-out-the-vote field studies more generally, especially where single locations are used. However, there is one important exception to this: experiments carried out in high turnout locations at high salience elections may show larger effects than those carried out in low turnout areas.

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Transparency at the Parish Pump: A Field Experiment to Measure the Effectiveness of Freedom of Information Requests

by matia vannoni and Peter John

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

Targeting voter registration with incentives: A randomized controlled trial of a lottery in a London borough

by Michael Sanders and Peter John

Does an incentive—in the form of a lottery—increase voter registration, particularly among poorer... more Does an incentive—in the form of a lottery—increase voter registration, particularly among poorer members of society? In the summer of 2012, two groups of 20,000 randomly selected households from a London Borough were informed that they would be placed into a prize draw if they registered to vote by 28 September 2012. One group was offered £5000 and the other £1000 while the remaining households in the borough received the standard letter with the same deadline but no lottery offer. The registration rates after the deadline were 46.2 per cent in the £1000 group and 46.6 per cent in the £1000 group compared to 44.7 in the control. Levels of registration in the two treatment groups are statistically different to the control, but not from each other. Households in poorer locations are more receptive of the lottery offer whereas there is no effect in places where richer households live. After the face-to-face canvass of all remaining non-registered households, which took place after the experiment, there were no statistically significant differences between the treatment groups and the control. The study builds on the work of Raja and Schaffner (2012) and Panagopoulos (2013) by finding that incentives work in different ways depending on their level and who is targeted.

Edwards, Brendan Frederick R. Paper Talk: A History of Libraries, Print Culture and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada before 1960

IDS Working paper 138

Bureaucratic decision making in institutional reform: a test of the ‘bureau shaping’hypothesis

sps.ed.ac.uk

This paper aims to test the idea that bureaucrats' preferences for a certain kind of role an... more This paper aims to test the idea that bureaucrats' preferences for a certain kind of role and set of preferred working tasks may motivate them to support the reform of their bureaus. It seeks to be the first survey-based test of Dunleavy's (1991) bureaushaping model, using attitudinal data from a survey of 471 local government bureaucrats carried out in 2005. But rather than assume one set of senior bureaucratic preferences, we follow Downs (1967) to put forward the idea that there are different kinds of bureaucrats who sort ...

format_quoteStudy analyzes survey data from 471 bureaucrats post-constitutional reform, revealing significant insights into bureaucrats' role preferences and behavior.format_quote

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Hellmut Wollmann and Kurt Thurmaier Reforming Local Government Institutions and the New Public Management in Europe and in the US Draft text (March 2010) To be published in

This chapter discusses institutional local government reforms, particularly those inspired by the... more This chapter discusses institutional local government reforms, particularly those inspired by the New Public Management, in an internationally comparative perspective. Since the late 1970s the reform of municipal administration has been formulated and encouraged by a conceptual current that developed into the internationally known and influential New Public Management (Hood 1991). Emerging out of New Zealand and Australia into the UK, and rapidly expanding particularly into Anglo-Saxon countries, the New Public Management ( ...

format_quoteLocal governments in the US employ 64% of public sector workforce, showcasing functional fragmentation and the impact of special purpose districts.format_quote

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The Civic Culture in Britain and America Fifty Years On1

Page 1. 1 The Civic Culture in Britain and America Fifty Years On1 Peter John+, Hanhua Liu* and E... more Page 1. 1 The Civic Culture in Britain and America Fifty Years On1 Peter John+, Hanhua Liu* and Ed Fieldhouse#, University of Manchester +Institute for Political and Economic Governance, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK (corresponding author) *Biostatistics, Health Sciences Research Group, School of Community-based Medicine, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK #Institute for Social Change, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, ...

Local policy networks in France and Britain: Policy co‐ordination in fragmented political Sub‐Systems

by alistair cole and Peter John

West European Politics, 1995

This article applies the concept of local policy networks to understand the emergence of local go... more This article applies the concept of local policy networks to understand the emergence of local governance in France and Britain. Although the concept of policy networks needs to be used with caution, it is a useful way of mapping out the complex interdependencies of local decision makers in both states. Traditional approaches to central‐local politics in Britain and France emphasised the contrasts between the two countries, and while these continue, Cole and John argue that recent institutional and policy changes suggest a convergence to a ...

Governing Education in England and France

by Peter John and alistair cole

Public Policy and Administration, 2001

Abstract This article investigates changes in educational governance in England and France. Parad... more Abstract This article investigates changes in educational governance in England and France. Paradigms of new governance are required to make sense of organisational complexity in both countries. English-style educational governance encompasses new forms of central steering, private techniques of public management, a culture of consumer-led evaluation, and new (bounded) forms of school autonomy. French-style educational governance is exemplified by organisational change, enhanced political and ...

Sociometric mapping techniques and the comparison of policy networks: economic decision making in Leeds and Lille

by Peter John and Alistair Cole

Comparing Policy Networks, 1998

Urban Regimes and Local Governance in Britain and France Policy Adaption and Coordination in Leeds and Lille

by Peter John and Alistair Cole

Urban Affairs Review, 1998

Rather than weakening regime theory, comparative analysis illuminates its central theoretical ins... more Rather than weakening regime theory, comparative analysis illuminates its central theoretical insights. The cases of Leeds (United Kingdom) and Lille (France) show cities in contrasting geographical, cultural, and institutional contexts developing regime like local polities through business participation in a wide range of public-sector decisions. The five special noninstitutional factors promoting regimes are local business ownership, business integration, large metropolitan context, and economic advantage or disadvantage. The ...

When Do Institutions, Policy Sectors, and Cities Matter?: Comparing Networks of Local Policy Makers in Britain and France

by Peter John and Alistair Cole

Comparative Political Studies, 2000

The paper explores the relative influence of policy sectors, political institutions and urban con... more The paper explores the relative influence of policy sectors, political institutions and urban contexts on the operation of contemporary governance. The research compared the membership, structure, governing capacity and change of local economic development and secondary education policy networks in four cities: Lille and Rennes in France and Leeds and Southampton in the UK. The main finding is that the type of policy sector mediates the impact of political institutions. There are strong differences between French and British education policy networks, but similarities between the economic policy ones. There is variation by city in economic development networks, but much less in secondary education. The implication of our findings is that some sectors, like economic development, tend to be similar across nation states and permit subnational variation while others retain strong country differences consistent with the longevity of state traditions. In the transition from government to governance, institutional, sectoral and urban processes become contingent on each other and upon their contexts. 2

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Teaching and learning with ICT: new technology, new pedagogy?

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 1463631042000210971, Feb 17, 2007

... Taken together, these changes in teaching affect the most important element improved student... more

Bubble wall profiles in supersymmetric models

We present solutions to the equations of motion for bubble wall profiles in the minimal and a non... more We present solutions to the equations of motion for bubble wall profiles in the minimal and a non minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard model. We discuss the method of the numerical approach and present results for the two models (MSSM and NMSSM). Calculations for the NMSSM were done in collaboration with S.J. Huber and M.G. Schmidt.

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