Dr Mads Qvortrup

Having earned his doctorate in Politics from Brasenose College, University of Oxford, Dr. Qvortrup has taught European at the London School of Economics (2001-2004). From 2004-2008, he was Chair of Political Science at the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. He has previously been a visiting Professor at University of Sydney.

Described by the BBC as "the World’s leading authority on referendums", Professor Qvortrup has worked as a consultant on elections and referendums for the US State Department, Elections Canada, and the Electoral Commission.

An expert on ‘the science of implementation’ Dr Qvortrup has been a delivery advisor for the British Home Office. A member of the ESRC specialist group on implementation, Dr Qvortrup in 2006 won a competitive ESRC grant  to analyse how public engagement could improve delivery and implementation of environmental policies.  This study was cited by the ESRC as a “model study”.

Books

• Fogh, Krag, Schlüter and Fogh. The Art of Running a Little Country, Borgen, Copenhagen (in Danish) 2009
• The Politics of Participation from Athens to eDemocracy, Manchester, MUP. 2007;
• Tony Blair, Host & Son, Copenhagen. 2006 (In Danish);
  
• A Comparative Study of Referendums. Government by the People, Manchester University Press/University of British Columbia Press, 2002, Second edition 2005;
• The Political Philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The Impossibility of Reason, University of British Columbia Press/Manchester University Press, 2003.

Articles in Journals (peer-reviewed)

• "Rebels without a Course?”: The Referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, Vol.80, No.1 (March 2009);
• Tintin in Australia" The Political Quarterly, Vol. 79, No. 2. (June 2008); "Citizen Initiated Referendums (CIR) in New Zealand: A Comparative Appraisal" in Representation, Volume 44, Issue 1, April 2008.
  
• "Howard's End: The Federal Election in Australia" Electoral Studies. (Forthcoming 2008).
  
• La Régulation référendaire: Le Canada et le Royaume-Uni, des modéles d’équité’ in Perspectives Électorales, Vol. 8, No.1, (2006)
  
• "Three Referendums on the European Constitution", in The Political Quarterly, 2006.
• "Fair Voting? The Regulation of Referendums in Cyprus in Comparative Perspective", Cyprus Review, Volume 17, No. 2. 2005.
  
• "First Past the Post Man", The Political Quarterly. September 2005.
  
• "Government by the People? The Referendum in British Politics", Representation. 2006.
  
• "In Search of Lost Time". On History and Government”, European Journal of Political Research,, No.1, 2004.
• "Murphy’s Law Revisited. Ireland and the EU", in Representation, Vol.39, No.1, 2002, (with Delores Taffe).
• "The Emperor’s New Clothes", West European Politics, Vol.25, No.2, 2002.
• "Functionalism in Practice", in Regional and Federal Studies An International Journal, Vol.11, No.1, 2001.
• "The Danish Euro-referendum in Comparative Perspective", in Representation, Vol.38, No.1, 2001.
• "How to Lose a Referendum", in The Political Quarterly, Vol.72, No.2, 2001.
• "Plutocracy Revisited. An Essay on Campaign Finance", in Politika. The Israeli Journal of Political Science and International Relations. Vol.15, No.2, 2000, (In Hebrew).
• "Checks and Balances in a Unicameral Parliament", in The Journal of Legislative Studies, Vol.6, No.3, 2000.
• "Are Referendums Controlled and Pro-Hegemonic?", in Political Studies.Vol. 48, No.4, 2000.
• "A.V. Dicey: The Referendum as the People’s Veto", in History of Political Thought, Vol.20, No.3, 1999.

Articles in Books

• "United Kingdom: Extreme Dominance by the Executive”, in Bjørn Erik Rasch and George Tsebelis (Editors). The Role of Government in Legislative Agenda-Setting, London, Routledge, 2009;
  
• "Super Majority Requirements", in Issues in Israeli Politics, Dana Ariel-Horowitz (Editor), Israel Democracy Institute, Tel Aviv, (In Hebrew), 2006.
• "Participation in British Politics" in Power and Politics in the UK Richard Heffernan and Graham Thompson (Editors), Edinburgh University Press, 2005.
• "Karl Popper and Friedrich Hayek", in Lars Bo Kaspersen (Editor), Political Thinkers, Hans Reizen Publishers, Copenhagen. Forthcoming 2009.
• "Edmund Burke" in Lars Bo Kaspersen (Editor), Political Thinkers, Hans Reizen Publishers, Copenhagen. Forthcoming 2008.
• "Rousseau, Constitutionalism and the Democratic Participation", in John D. Patillo-Hess and Mario R. Smole (Editors). Parliamentary Democracy and Its Enemies, Vienna, Löcker Verlag, 2002, (In German)
• "Toward a Theory of Constitutional Changes", in Mads Qvortrup (Editor), Constitutionalism: Between Law and Politics, Aarhus, Politica, 2001, (In Danish);
• "Regulation of Direct Democracy Outside the USA: Impressions, Tendencies and Patterns from Overseas", in M. Dane Waters (Editor), The Battle over Citizen Lawmaking, Durham, Carolina Academic Press, 2001.
• "The Courts vs. The People", in M. Dane Waters (Editor), The Battle over Citizen Lawmaking, Durham, Carolina Academic Press, 2001.

Selected International Conference Papers

• "The Politics of Yes and No", 3. Associação Portuguesa de Ciência Política, Fundação Calouste Gulberkian, Lisbon 30 March, 2006.
• "Human Rights and the British Constitution", Constitutional Seminar, University of Melbourne 15 September, 2005.
• "Rousseau as a Constitutionalist", 14. Conference – Canetti Symposion, Parliamentary Democracy and Its Enemies, GMMF, Vienna, Austria, 27-30 September, 2001.
• "Public Opinion and European Integration: What determines the outcomes of referendums on ‘Europe’", (Key-note speaker), Sweden CBI/Sweriges Riksdag (the Parliament of Sweden), Stockholm, 17 November, 2002.

Selected International Media Contributions

• BBC Radio Newshour interviewed Dr. Qvortrup, asking him about Barack Obama, one of the Democratic candidates in the current US presidential elections.
• Professor Qvortrup's work on direct democracy has influenced decison-makers and senior politicians. Most recently, the House of Commons, in the Lower House of the British Parliament. Read the full House of Commons Standard Note Citizens' Initiative http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/notes/snpc-04483.pdf
• "[Citizens'] views...(as discussed in Supply Side Politics by Matt Qvortrup), should be taken into account, but they should not in themselves determine policy". Peter Riddell, Political briefing, 'Petitions are fine, but no substitute for democracy' in The Times, 13th January, 2007      http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/peter_riddell/article1375155.ece
• "A pamphlet ..... by Matt Qvortrup (who sounds like the first line of the keyboard but makes more sense)". Extract from 'The Spectator's Notes' in The Spectator, February 2007 (http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/the-week/27968/the-spectators-notes.thtml)