Prominent scholars have viewed the Great Reform Act as a concession made by incumbent elites in order to defuse a revolutionary threat. In this essay, we argue that the threat from below did not entail a significant risk of regime overthrow and was addressed by establishing professional police forces in all provincial towns and half the counties. Such forces had been stoutly opposed by the gentry since the Glorious Revolution, on the grounds that they would increase Crown power too much.

A roundtable on George Lawson's (LSE) latest book 'Anatomies of Revolution'. Andrea Ruggeri (Oxford) will chair and discussants will include Stathis Kalyvas and Liz Frazer (Oxford).

In the 2019 Oxford Fulbright Distinguished Lecture in International Relations, David Miliband will use his vantage point as CEO of the International Rescue Committee to examine one of the major shifts in international relations today, away from checks and balances on the use of power, and towards an Age of Impunity. He will explain how the rules-based international order forged after World War II is being undermined, and suggest how the multilateralist promise embodied by Senator Fulbright can be redeemed.

DPIR faculty and DPhil students are invited to attend a conference on Political Economy of Development and Accountability.

When taking on new debt, governments may borrow from commercial banks, access the sovereign bond market, borrow from official bilateral creditors, or from multilateral financial institutions. While some of the structure of government borrowing reflects macroeconomic conditions and country creditworthiness, governments' choices among borrowing instruments also are driven by their preferences over transparency.