Ask the Experts: a year of global elections

In 2024, almost half the world’s population went to the polls, including in the US, the UK, India, Mexico and South Africa. Unpack the lessons from this record-breaking year in election history with political scientist and author Professor Ben Ansell FBA, expert on US and Indian politics Dr Pavithra Suryanarayan, and expert on European Union politics Professor Sara Hobolt FBA. Put your questions about electoral outcomes and emerging trends to our panel of experts and find out how this year of elections has reshaped global politics.

Speakers:

Professor Ben Ansell FBA

Ben Ansell is Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. Born in California, he grew up in the UK before returning to the US for his postgraduate studies in political science at UC Berkeley, followed by a PhD at Harvard. He taught for several years at the University of Minnesota, becoming a full Professor at Oxford in 2013 at the age of 35. He was made Fellow of the British Academy in 2018. His work has been widely covered in the media, including the New York Times, the Economist, the Times, BBC Radio and the World Bank's Economic Development Report. You can learn more about Professor Ben Ansell's work, and his book 'Why Politics Fail' in his British Academy's 10-Minute Talk.

Dr Pavithra Suryanarayn

Dr Pavithra Suryanarayn is Associate Professor in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics. She studies state capacity, redistributive politics, and vote choice in ranked societies like India and the United States. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Le Monde, the Economist, and the Hindu amongst others, and has won discipline-wide awards. Before joining the LSE, she was Assistant Professor at John Hopkins University and completed her PhD in political Science at Columbia University. 

Professor Sara Hobolt FBA

Sara Hobolt is the Sutherland Chair in European Institutions and Professor in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics. Previously, she held posts at the University of Oxford and the University of Michigan. She was made Fellow of the British Academy in 2017. She has published extensively on elections, referendums, public opinion and European Union politics. 

Chair:

Hetan Shah

Hetan Shah is Chief Executive at the British Academy, the UK’s national academy for humanities and social sciences. He is Chair of Our World in Data, which brings together research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems. Hetan was appointed in 2024 by the UK Parliament to the board of the National Audit Office, the UK’s independent spending watchdog. He is Visiting Professor at the Policy Institute, Kings College London and a Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London. Hetan serves on a number of advisory boards including the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, the UCL Policy Lab and the Resolution Foundation.

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