Jean-Paul Faguet, Professor of the Political Economy of Development in the LSE Department of International Development, has been elected to the Fellowship of the Academy of Social Sciences.
The Academy of Social Sciences is the national academy of academics, practitioners and learned societies in the social sciences. Fellows are recognised for excellence in their fields and their substantial contributions to social science for public benefit. Selection is through an independent peer review which considers excellence and impact.
Professor Faguet has been elected Fellow in recognition of his contributions across political science, economics, and development studies. Covering subject areas including decentralization and fiscal federalism, institutions and long-run development, and political stability and instability in developing countries, his work has pioneered a bottom-up conception of institutions and governance that has upended conventional wisdom about how development happens, or fails to happen. He has played a key role in establishing “large-N subnational analysis” as a cutting-edge method that blends quantitative and qualitative evidence to build empirical analyses that combine broad generality with nuanced understanding.
Of his nomination, Professor Faguet said: “At a time when publics across both developing countries and the West are losing faith in their governments, and even in the ideal of democracy, a deeper understanding of the links between governance and development could not be more important. I am deeply honoured that the Academy should honour my work in this way, and grateful to LSE for the thriving intellectual community that nurtured it.”