This website includes interactive, multimedia links of potential use to policy researchers and anyone interested in law, public policy and advocacy – all come from my award winning Durham Law School module ‘Legal Frontiers’. You will find links to databases, information about research methods – and the tools to use them!
KEY POLICY DATABASES
List of UK Government Policies (website)
Social Science Research Network (SSRN)
They Work for You (Parliamentary records)
KEY RESOURCES
Analysing interview data (website)
Behavioural Insights Team (website)
Bryson, Social Research Methods (4th ed) resources (website)
General guidelines for conducting interviews (website)
House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, ‘The centre of government’ (pdf report)
Nudge blog (website)
Qualitative Data Analysis help (website)
Random number generator (for sampling) (website)
Research Design (website)
Research Ethics Guidebook (website)
Sampling – a brief introduction (website)
Sampling error calculator (website)
SPSS – an introduction (website)
Straw Poll – create your own (website)
Surveymonkey (website)
- See Create a questionnaire (website)
- See Questionnaires: Good and Bad examples (website)
Using focus groups for research (website)
Web Centre for Research Methods (website)
‘Yes, Minister’ on leading questions (video)
FURTHER READING:
INTRODUCTION
Bruce Ackerman, ‘Law in an Activist State’ (essay)
Howell E. Jackson, et al. Analytical Methods for Lawyers, 2nd ed. New York: Foundation Press, 2011.
LAW AND PUBLIC POLICY
Anthony Kreis and Robert Christensen, ‘Law and Public Policy’ (essay)
Richard Lempert, ‘Empirical Research for Public Policy: With Examples from Family Law’ (essay)
Gus O’Donnell, ‘Better Government’ (essay)
Matthew D. Adler, Measuring Social Welfare: An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Suma Damodaran, Managerial Economics, 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Arye L. Hillman, Public Finance and Public Policy: A Political Economy Perspective on the Responsibilities and Limitations of Government, 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019, esp parts 2 and 3.
Christopher Hood & Ruth Dixon, A Government That Worked Better and Cost Less? Evaluating Three Decades of Reform and Change in UK Central Government. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Rachel Meltzer & Alex Schwartz, Policy Analysis as Problem Solving: A Flexible and Evidence-Based Framework. London: Routledge, 2019.
Ed Straw, Stand and Deliver: A Design for Successful Government. York: Treaty for Government, 2014.
ADVANCED LEGAL RESEARCH METHODS
Ivana Acocella, ‘The focus groups in social research: advantages and disadvantages’ (essay)
Beth Leech, ‘Asking Questions: Techniques for Semistructured Interviews’ (essay)
Nora Schaeffer and Stanley Presser, ‘The Science of Asking Questions’ (essay)
Daniel Farber, ‘Rethinking the Role of Cost-Benefit Analysis’ (essay)
Howland, et al, ‘Merging Content Analysis and the Policy Sciences’ (essay)
Eric Posner, ‘ Controlling Agencies with Cost-Benefit Analysis: A Positive Political Theory Perspective’ (essay)
Cass Sunstein, ‘Is Cost-Benefit Analysis for Everyone?’ (essay)
Randall Kiser, Soft Skills for the Effective Lawyer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
Christian Rudder, Dataclysm: What our online lives tell us about our online selves. London: Fourth Estate, 2014.
Kai Ruggeri (ed.), Behavioral Insights for Public Policy: Concepts and Cases. London: Routledge, 2019, esp chapter 4.
PUBLIC OPINION
Dennis Chong and James Druckman, ‘Dynamic Public Opinion’ (essay)
Stephen Coleman and Jay Blumler, ‘The Wisdom of Which Crowd?’ (essay)
Dan Kahan, et al, ‘Cultural Cognition of Scientific Consensus’ (essay)
Peter John, et al, ‘Nudge, Nudge, Think Think’ (essay)
Paul Whitely, ‘Why Did the Polls Get It Wrong in the 2015 General Election? Evaluating the Inquiry into Pre-Election Polls’ (essay)
Joan van Tassel, Mary Murphy and Joseph Schmitz, The New News: The Journalist’s Guide to Producing Digital Content for Online and Mobile News. London: Routledge, 2020.
STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION
Dan Kahan, ‘Fixing the Communications Failure’ (essay)
BBC News, ‘Miliband, Clegg and Cameron: Three speeches compared’ (website)
John Rawls, ‘The Idea of Public Reason Revisited’ (essay)
Jean Sternlight and Jennifer Robbennolt, ‘Good Lawyers Should Be Good Psychologists: Insights for Interviewing and Counselling Clients’ (essay)
‘Persuasion – Empirical Evidence’ (website)
Nicole Mayer, ‘”Think” versus “Feel” Framing Effects in Persuasion’ (essay)
John Barkai, ‘Speaking Body Language’ (essay)
Brian K. Johnson and Marsha Hunter, The Articulate Advocate: Persuasive Skills for Lawyers in Trials, Appeals, Arbitrarions and Motions, 2nd ed. Santa Fe: Crown King Books, 2016.
Geoff Mulgan, The Art of Public Strategy: Mobilizing Power and Knowledge for the Common Good. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Florence Kennedy Rolland, The Persuasive Negotiator: Tools and Techniques for Effective Negotiating. London: Routledge, 2021, esp. chapters 7 and 9.
Joel P. Trachtman, The Tools of Argument: How the Best Lawyers Think, Argue and Win. 2013.
