About
I am a Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Political Economy at King's College London. Previously, I was a Reader, Senior Lecturer, and Lecturer in the same department, and an LSE Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. I am also a research associate of the Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation. I obtained my PhD degree from the European University Institute, and hold a BA and MPhil degree from Leiden University. I held visiting positions at the Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals (IBEI), the Hertie School in Berlin, the University of Tartu, the University of Utrecht, the Montesquieu Institute in the Hague, and Columbia University in New York.
I am interested in the insulation of policy-making from politics and the electoral process, both at the domestic and European level, and particularly in the field of economic governance. My research has primarily focused on the independence, accountability, performance and politicisation of arm's length bodies. Currently, I am working on a set of papers on citizen engagement by these same organisations.
Publications
You can also find my articles and other publications via Google Scholar; for earlier versions of pay-walled articles, please see my ResearchGate page.
- "Digital practices for consumer e-participation in economic regulation and the role of organisational capacity." (with Alena Pivavarava). Early view in the Journal of European Public Policy (2024).
- "Exploring the potential and limits of digital tools for inclusive regulatory engagement with citizens." (with Chris Townley). Government Information Quarterly 41 (1): 101901 (2024).
- "Non-majoritarian institutions, media coverage, and 'reinforced accountability'" (with Michele Scotto di Vettimo). Governance 37 (2): 599-617 (2024).
- "How do the media scrutinise central banking? Evidence from the Bank of England" (with Michele Scotto di Vettimo). European Journal of Political Economy 77: 102296 (2023). [KCL news article]
- "Agenda‐setting under pressure: Does domestic politics influence the European Commission?" (with Christine Reh and Edoardo Bressanelli). European Journal of Political Research 61 (1): 46-66 (2022). [Blog post]
- "Good news reduces trust in government and its efficacy: The case of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine announcement" (with Shaun Hargreaves Heap, Kostas Matakos, Aslı Unan and Nina Weber). PLOS ONE 16 (12): e0260216 (2021). [Dataset] [KCL news article]
- "Keeping control of regulation? Domestic constraints on the creation of independent authorities in emerging and developing economies" (with Philip Kessler). Governance 34 (2): 545-564 (2021). [Dataset]
- "British economic regulators in an age of politicisation: From the responsible to the responsive regulatory state?" (with Martin Lodge). Journal of European Public Policy 27 (11): 1612-1635 (2020).
- "EU actors under pressure: Politicisation and depoliticisation as strategic responses" (with Edoardo Bressanelli and Christine Reh). Journal of European Public Policy 27 (3): 329-341 (2020). [Blogpost]
- "Responsive withdrawal? The politics of EU agenda-setting" (with Christine Reh and Edoardo Bressanelli). Journal of European Public Policy 27 (3): 419-438 (2020).
- "Losing out on substance but winning procedurally? The European Parliament and accountability in crisis legislation" (with Maja Kluger Dionigi). West European Politics 42 (4): 776-802 (2019). [Blog post]
- "Europe's bank and Europe's citizens: Accountability, transparency -- legitimacy?" (with Christine Reh). Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law 26 (1): 63-80 (2019).
- "Political independence, accountability, and the quality of regulatory decision-making" (with Chris Hanretty). Comparative Political Studies 51 (1): 38-75 (2018). [Data]
- "When politics prevails: Parties, elections and loyalty in the European Parliament"(with Edoardo Bressanelli and Christine Reh). European Journal of Political Research 57 (3): 563-586 (2018).
- "What is regulation? An interdisciplinary concept analysis" (with Martin Lodge). Regulation & Governance 11 (1): 95-108 (2017).
- "The impact of informalisation: Early agreements and voting cohesion in the European Parliament" (with Edoardo Bressanelli and Christine Reh). European Union Politics 17 (1): 91-113 (2016). [Data] [Blog post]
- "Theorizing and explaining voluntary accountability." Public Administration 92 (3): 565-581 (2014).
- "Coping with power dispersion? Autonomy, co-ordination and control in multi-level systems" (with Mads Dagnis Jensen and Michael Tatham). Journal of European Public Policy 21 (9): 1237-1254 (2014). [Introduction to the special issue with the same title]
- "Exploring the co-ordination of economic regulation" (with Martin Lodge). Journal of European Public Policy 21 (9): 1311-1329 (2014).
- "The informal politics of legislation: Explaining secluded decision making in the European Union" (with Christine Reh, Adrienne Heritier and Edoardo Bressanelli). Comparative Political Studies 46 (9): 1112-1142 (2013). [Data]
- "Measuring the formal independence of regulatory agencies" (with Chris Hanretty). Journal of European Public Policy 19 (2): 198-216 (2012).
- "Explaining the accountability of independent agencies: The importance of political salience". Journal of Public Policy 31 (2): 209-234 (2011).
- "Political distrust and social capital in Europe and the USA" (with Peggy Schyns). Social Indicators Research 96 (1): 145-167 (2010).
- "Consensus democracy and the support for populist parties in Western Europe" (with Armen Hakhverdian). Acta Politica 42 (4): 401-420 (2007).
Working papers
- "We cannot disagree forever! Reality polarization and citizens' post-pandemic fiscal adjustment preferences" (with Shaun Hargreaves Heap, Kostas Matakos, Aslı Unan and Nina Weber) (see also Monkey Cage)
- "COVID-19 and people's health-wealth preferences: Information effects and policy implications" (with Shaun Hargreaves Heap, Kostas Matakos, Aslı Unan and Nina Weber) (see also VoxEU)
Current projects
The research projects I am currently working on are:
(1) Regulators and central banks under pressure: Analysing communicative responses (Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship)
- Independent regulatory agencies and central banks have come under growing public and political pressure since the global financial crisis. Whilst their independence has always been criticised for a lack of legitimacy, their performance is now also increasingly contested. How have the organisations responded to this pressure? In this project, I analyse the speeches delivered by their key decision-makers between 2000 and 2019. Has the focus shifted toward consumer interests and citizen trust? Has their scope increased, and their complexity decreased? By analysing speeches, the project will shed light on the communicative and strategic responses of unelected bodies under pressure.
(2) Reconnecting citizens to the administrative state (NORFACE grant) (with Martin Lodge, Caelesta Braun, Jacint Jordana, and Nick Sitter)
- Public administration is central to democratic governance as it connects citizens to the state in multiple ways. Yet, the current age of political turbulence – expressed through citizen dissatisfaction and populist politics – represents a fundamental challenge to the authority of the institutions of the administrative state. This has led to disconnection, but also to administrative efforts to reconnect citizens with the state. The RECONNECT project investigates how calls for more 'responsive' administrative state institutions have developed – both among citizens and politicians – and how the administrative state has sought to become more responsive, especially when simultaneously faced with expectations of neutrality and impartiality. The project explores five distinct citizen-focused dimensions of the administrative state: constitutional, regulatory, enabling, consumer-protecting and consulting dimensions. Using a mixed-methods approach, including attitudinal, media, document and interview analysis, RECONNECT generates new knowledge to compare and explain variation across both European jurisdictions and dimensions of the administrative state. In the process, the project contributes to academic and practitioner debates regarding the future of the administrative state, and to a better understanding of how citizens can be reconnected to wider democratic governance and the administrative state in particular.
- RECONNECT is funded by the AEI, ESRC, NWO and RCN, and the European Commission through Horizon 2020 (Grant No. 822166).
Supervision
I am interested in supervising PhD projects in areas within my research expertise, especially regulatory policy and decision-making by arm's length bodies.
Current PhD researchers
- Mayang Rizky
- Matteo Nebbiai
- Talya Oztop
- Santiago Quintero (second supervisor)
- Vellah Kedogo Kigwiru (external supervisor)
Graduated PhD researchers
- Michele Scotto di Vettimo (King's College London)
- Aslı Unan (University of Amsterdam)
- Stuart Turnbull Dugarte (University of Southampton)
- Philip Kessler (ThyssenKrupp)
- José Bolaños (Polyzentrik)
- Philipp Broniecki (University of Oslo)
- Slobodan Tomic (University of York)
Contact
Location
Department of Political Economy
King's College London
Bush House (North East Wing)
30 Aldwych
London WC2B 4BG
United Kingdom
christel.koop@kcl.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 (0)20 7848 7324