Professor Martin Laffin
Head of School

Tel: +44 (0)20 7882 2695
Fax: +44 (0)20 7882 3615
Location: Mile End, Francis Bancroft Building, Room 4.01
Email: m.laffin@qmul.ac.uk

Research interests:

Martin Laffin is Head of School and Professor of Public Management. He was previously Deputy Dean (Research) and Professor of Public Policy and Management, Durham Business School, University of Durham. His research and teaching has been in the fields of central-local relations, devolved public services, politician-bureaucrat relationships, professionalism in the public sector, intergovernmental relations and regional government. He has authored or co-authored five books and numerous articles and book chapters on public policy in Britain, Australia and the USA. He has recently completed a study of ‘Connecting Communities to the Nation: A Review of the Relationships between Local Communities and National Policy Systems’, which is part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council Connected Communities Programme, with colleagues in the Institute for Local Governance. He has also recently finished a study of the reorganisation of social housing delivery during the last Labour government.

He is a member of the Business and Management Research Excellence Framework 2014 Sub-Panel and previously served on the UK Research Assessment Exercise 2008 Business and Management Studies Sub-Panel. He was, until 2011, Chair of the Joint University Council Public Administration Committee, the learned association for public administration in the UK, and Co-Convenor, European Group for Public Administration Standing Group on Local and Regional Government.  

Topics for potential research students

Intergovernmental relations and central-local relations
Regional government
Politician-bureaucrat relationships
The professions in the public and private sectors

Publications:

Laffin, M. (forthcoming), ‘A New Politics of Governance or an Old Politics of Central-Local Relations? Labour’s Reform of Social Housing Tenancies in England’ Public Administration

Laffin, M. and Wiessert, C. (2011), ‘Introduction: Policy Formulation Processes in IGR Settings’ in A. Massey et al. Governance and Intergovernmental relations in the European Union and the United States (Edward Elgar: Cheltenham).

Laffin, M. (2009), Central-Local Relations in an Era of Governance: Towards a New Research Agenda, Local Government Studies 35, 1: 21-37.

Laffin, M. (2008), ‘Local Government Modernisation In England: A Critical Review of the LGMA Evaluation Studies’, Local Government Studies, 34, 1: 109-125.

Laffin, M., E. Shaw and G. Taylor, ‘The Parties and Intergovernmental Relations’, in Alan Tench (ed.) Devolution and Power in the UK  (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007).

Laffin, M. (2007), ‘The Scottish Liberal Democrats’, The Political Quarterly, 78, 1: 147-155.

Laffin, M. (2007), ‘Coalition-Formation and Centre-Periphery Relations in a National party: The Liberal Democrats in a Devolved Britain’, Party Politics, 13, 6: 651-668.

Laffin, M. (2007), ‘Comparative British Central-Local Relations: Regional Centralism, Governance and Intergovernmental Relations’, Public Policy and Administration, 22, 1: 74-91.

Martin Laffin, Eric Shaw (2007), ‘The New Subnational Politics of the Labour Party’, Party Politics, 13, 1: 88-108.

Co-Editor, Special Edition of International Journal of Public Sector Management on ‘Partnership’, 2006.

Tom Entwistle and Martin Laffin (2005), ‘The Prehistory of the Best Value Regime’, Local Government Studies, 31, 2: 205-218.

Laffin, M. (2004), ‘Is Regional Centralism Inevitable? The Case of the Welsh Assembly’, Regional Studies, 38, 2: 213-23.

Laffin, M., G. Taylor and A. Thomas (2004), ‘Devolution and Party Organisation: The Case of the Wales Labour Party’, Contemporary Wales, 16: 53-74.

Entwistle, T. and Laffin, M. (2003), ‘The Multiple Strategies of the Local Government Association: Partner, Player or Think-tank?’ Policy and Politics 31, 1: 37-50.

(with Gerald Taylor and Alys Thomas) A New Partnership? The National Assembly for Wales and Local Government (York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2002)

Thomas, A and Laffin, M. (2001), ‘The First Welsh Constitutional Crisis: The Alun Michael Resignation’, Public Policy and Administration 16, 1: 18-31.

Laffin, M. ‘Editorial’ (2001), Public Money and Management on ‘The Machinery of Sub-National Government – UK, Australia and Canada’ 20, 2: 3-5.

Laffin, M. and Thomas A. (2001), ‘Learning to Work Together: Political-Official Relations in the Welsh Assembly,’ Public Money and Management 20, 2: 45-51.

Laffin, M., Thomas, A. and Webb, A.(2000), ‘Intergovernmental Relations after Devolution: The National Assembly for Wales’, Political Quarterly, 71, 2: 223-33.

Laffin, M. and Thomas A. (2000), ‘Designing the National Assembly for Wales’, Parliamentary Affairs, 53, 3: 557-590.

Laffin, M. (2000), ‘Constitutional Design: A Framework for Analysis’, Parliamentary Affairs, 53, 3: 532-541.

Laffin, M. and Entwistle, T. (2000), ‘New Problems, Old Professions? The Changing National World of the Local Government Professions’, Policy and Politics, 28, 2: 207-20.

Postgraduate teaching:

PhD 1st Supervisor:

Mr Dennis De Widt