Professor Charles Lees

Professor of Politics

In September 2011 Charles Lees joined the Department of Politics, Languages & International Studies as Professor of Politics.

He joined Bath from the University of Sheffield, where he worked for eight years in the Department of Politics. Professor Lees specialises in comparative politics and policy: including political parties and party systems, coalition government and environmental politics and policy.

Speaking about his move to Bath, Professor Lees said: “I was drawn to Bath because of its academic reputation and the quality of life that it offers. I think the University’s scale is one of its key advantages. It has a strong research core but the scale is very human and its management structures far less bureaucratic than many universities. If you’re in any way entrepreneurial and want to make your mark, it’s easier to do it in a fleet of foot institution like Bath’’.

‘’Since arriving I have forged some very interesting inter-disciplinary research relationships. I have worked intensively with Graham Room as part of the Steering Group that established The Bath Institute for Policy Research. I am very active in the Institute’s Governance and Policy Design and Environment and Sustainability research strands and I am currently working on a project on ‘time discounting’ with Michael Finus, Ingolfur Bluehdorn, and Axel Goodbody. I am also increasingly interested in the politics and policy of growth and competiveness following the Global Financial Crisis and am working with colleagues in Australia on these themes. For me The University of Bath Institute for Policy Research is the key means for energising these collaborative research activities, bringing a stronger applied dimension to my work, and making it available to a wider audience ’’.

Professor Lees completed his doctorate on Red-Green coalitions in Germany in 1998 and worked at the University of Sussex before moving to Sheffield and subsequently to Bath. His first book, The Red-Green Coalition in Germany: Politics, Personalities, and Power (Manchester University Press, 2000) was a benchmark work on the subject and is widely cited in English and German. His second book, Party Politics in Germany: a comparative politics approach (Palgrave, 2005) is widely recognised as having re-calibrated debates on single-country and area studies scholarship, whilst his latest book (co-authored with Andrew Geddes and Andrew Taylor) The European Union and South East Europe: The Dynamics of Europeanization and Multi-level Governance (Routledge, 2012) brings important new analytical and empirical perspectives to the enlargement process in South-East Europe.

In addition to writing extensively on comparative politics, policy, and methodology, Professor Lees has provided media commentary and research and advice for organisations such as the BBC, Sky News, Australian Labor Party, the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, and the Scottish Executive. He is a Professorial Fellow at the University of Sussex, a Visiting Fellow at the University of Birmingham, and has held visiting fellowships at the University of California San Diego, the Australian National University, the University of Sydney, and the Humboldt University Berlin.