Jonathan Hopkin

Jonathan Hopkin is Professor of Comparative Politics in the Department of Government and European Institute at the London School of Economics. He is the author of Party Formation and Democratic Transition in Spain (1999, Macmillan) and Anti-System Politics: The Crisis of Market Liberalism in Rich Democracies (2020, Oxford University Press). Previously he taught at the Universities of Bradford, Durham and Birmingham, and held visiting positions at Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, the University of Bologna, and the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He has published widely on the party politics and political economy of Europe in journals such as the British Journal of Sociology, European Journal of Political Research, Governance, Journal of European Public Policy, New Political Economy, the Review of International Political Economy, Party Politics, Politics and Society and West European Politics.

Research

My research focuses on the political economy of Western Europe (and specifically Italy, Spain and the UK), with particular reference to economic inequality and its relationship with democratic politics. My first book, Party Formation and Democratic Transition in Spain (Macmillan 1999), focused on the difficult relationship between business interests and political elites in post-Franco Spain. I then moved on to the study of political finance and corruption, the effects of decentralizing reforms on political parties, and the politics of redistribution and inequality, resulting in articles in various journals including the European Journal of Political Research, Governance, New Political Economy, Party Politics, Politics and Society, the Review of International Political Economy and West European Politics.

I am currently working on a book manuscript, Anti-System Politics (Oxford University Press), which looks at how inequality and economic crisis have destabilized the post-Cold War political order in the advanced democracies, leading to the emergence of new forms of political contestation.