The LSE has a long history of influencing political thought and policy. The British Government at LSE has embarked on a project to showcase the numerous scholars, from Beatrice and Sidney Webb to Richard Layard, that have had an important impact on the state and society. In this article, Tony Travers provides an overview of the project’s purpose and progress

Travers, Tony

LSE Research Online

6/27/2013The LSE’s ‘Influential Academics’ project: How a number ofthe School’s personalities have contributed directly topolitical thought, government and policy-makingblogs.lse.ac.uk /politicsandpolicy/34281/The LSE has a long history of influencing political thought and policy.  The British Government at LSE hasembarked on a project to showcase the numerous scholars, from Beatrice and Sidney Webb toRichard Layard, that have had an important impact on the state and society. In this article, TonyTravers provides an overview of the project’s purpose and progress.LSE academics have long been involved in the development of political ideas and policy, a form ofactivity which would today be seen as ‘engagement’ or ‘knowledge exchange’. From the School’screation in 1895, its staff and students have been concerned with knowledge applied to publicpolicy issues and/or to the furtherance of the philosophy of government. Today’s politicians and public officialscontinue to have regular involvement with many of LSE’s researchers.In a world where the word ‘academic’ is used to mean ‘scholarly’ and, by other people, ‘not directly useful’, it isimportant to show how the activities undertaken in universities are relevant to those who pay the taxes that underpin(at least part of) the cost of higher education. The LSE’s ‘Influential Academics’ project  is intended to show how anumber of the School’s personalities have contributed directly to political thought and policy. This project, an elementin the HEIF-funded BG@LSE engagement process, now includes interviews (mostly with LSE people) about theactivities of past and contemporary academics who have been involved with political thought, government andpolicy-making in Britain.The work completed so far provides only a modest snapshot of what has been achieved by LSE academics sincethe end of the 19th century: many key figures from the past have not yet been covered, while contemporary figureshave (for obvious reasons) been more easily included. Additional interviews will be added in future.Beatrice and Sidney Webb, along with Graham Wallas, are featured. As founders of the School, LSE can be seen asan example of their desire to influence policy by taking direct steps to create a new institution with a particular andpractical objective. The Webbs also helped found the Fabian Society. Their gradualism can be measured by the factthe LSE’s Old Building has a foundation stone laid by King George V. The monarch’s endorsement of the (thenrelatively new) London School of Economics and Political Science shows how Britain’s Establishment has alwaysbeen flexibly able to embrace non-revolutionary new ideas.The ‘Inter-War Years’ are represented by William Beveridge, Friedrich Hayek and RH Tawney. Beveridge isacknowledged as the founder of the Welfare State, an extraordinary achievement which affects the lives of everyonein Britain today. Hayek’s Road to Serfdom warned of the danger of the tyranny which, in his view, inevitably resultedfrom government control of economic decision-making and subsequent central planning. His work remainsinfluential on Conservative politicians and lives on through leading think-tanks. RH Tawney was a Christian Socialistwho was active as a member of the London County Council and the University grants Committee. He was Presidentof the Workers’ Educational Association; he influenced government, also the Labour Movement and the Church.Beveridge was a Liberal, Hayek a significant inspiration to Margaret Thatcher, while Tawney influenced the LabourParty. The School has embraced political thinkers of very different kinds who were also either directly or indirectlyinfluential on day-to-day policy and government.After 1945, the School’s staff included Brian Abel-Smith, Michael Oakeshott, Lionel Robbins, Richard Titmuss andEileen Younghusband. Abel-Smith was directly involved in government as a special advisor to Labour ministers1/2about health policy. Oakeshott was a radically different figure who, while not directly involved with the messybusiness of government or politics, was highly influential on both Conservatives and Liberals.  Robbins’s eponymousreport laid the foundations for the expansion of higher education in Britain, while Younghusband chaired an officialworking party which led to the wholesale reform of social work in Britain.There is a thread of interest in contemporary political thinking, politics and government running through these andother LSE figures. Those considered as part of this initial examination of ‘Influential Academics’ during the School’searly and middle years were thinkers, practitioners, writers and institutional inventors. More recent, contemporary,figures have followed similar paths.Other universities could make a similar case. What is unique about the LSE is its particular history, its social scienceorientation and its geographical location. Elements of this history are available, though interviews with other LSEfigures, on the website. The School’s social science focus is another element in explaining why it has been able tohave the impacts it has. This focus, aligned to a home equidistant between Westminster and the City, has madedirect involvement in government and politics far easier than is the case for most other British institutions. Today, theLSE is less than three hours from Brussels, making involvement in European institutions relatively simple.Such involvement is still much in evidence today.  Many LSE academics are involved with government, Parliamentand policy-making. For instance, Professor Eileen Munro led an official review of child protection, while ProfessorJulian le Grand chaired the government’s Mutuals Taskforce. The LSE Growth Commission (working jointly with theInstitute for Government), co-chaired by Professor John Van Reenen, recently produced a detailed set of policyproposals aimed at policy-makers.LSE staff are also regularly involved in giving evidence to Parliamentary committees. In 2012 and 2013, Simon Hix(European Scrutiny Committee), Tim Besley (International Development Committee),  Eileen Munro (EducationCommittee), José-Luis Fernandez (Health Committee),  Stuart Gordon (International Development Committee),Charles Goodhart (Treasury Committee), Damian Tambini (Lords Committee on Media Convergence), HenryOverman (Transport Committee), Dimitri Zenghelis (Environmental Audit Committee), Etisham Ahmad (InternationalDevelopment Committee), Paul de Grauwe (Lords EU Sub-Committee on Economic and Financial Affairs), SamuelFankhauser (Energy and Climate Change Committee), Tony Travers (Public Accounts Committee and Raising theCapital – London Finance Commission Report), John Hills (Energy and Climate Change Committee) and PatrickDunleavy (Political and Constitutional Reform Committee) have all given evidence to Parliament.Thus, the LSE history outlined above is part of a longer-term continuum of involvement between the School’sacademics on the one hand, and government and parliament on the other. In the coming months and years,additional individuals will be featured in the ‘influentials’ feature. Like the business of government, the LSE’s work ison-going.Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of the British Politics and Policy blog, nor of theLondon School of Economics. Please read our comments policy before posting.About the AuthorTony Travers is Director of LSE London, a research centre at the London School of Economics. He is also a VisitingProfessor in the LSE’s Government Department.2/2

The LSE’s ‘Influential Academics’ project: How a number of the School’s personalities have contributed directly to political thought, government and policy-making

The LSE’s ‘Influential Academics’ project: How a number of the School’s personalities have contributed directly to political thought, government and policy-making

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

LSE Research Online