People

Ben Ansell

PhD Harvard, FBA

Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions, Nuffield College
AFFILIATION
Government and Politics Network
College
Nuffield College

Ben Ansell is Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions in the Department of Politics and International Relations and Professorial Fellow, Nuffield College. He received his PhD in Government from Harvard University in 2006 and conducts research in a wide area of comparative politics and political economy. Before joining Oxford and Nuffield College he was an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota.

His initial research focus was the politics of education, with his book From the Ballot to the Blackboard: The Redistributive Politics of Education, published by Cambridge University Press in 2010 and winning the William H. Riker prize for best book in political economy. His second book, Inequality and Democratization: An Elite-Competition Approach, coauthored with David Samuels and published by Cambridge University Press in 2014 won the Woodrow Wilson APSA Best Book Prize and the William H. Riker best book in political economy prize. His third book, coauthored with Johannes Lindvall, Inward Conquest: The Political Origins of Public Services, was published in 2021 by Cambridge University Press. His work has been published in International Organization, Journal of Politics, World Politics, Comparative Political Studies, West European Politics, and the American Political Science Review.

From September 2013, together with David Samuels at the University of Minnesota, he has been co-editor of Comparative Political Studies. He is Principal Investigator of the European Research Council funded project WEALTHPOL and is a Fellow of the British Academy.

Ben's latest book, Why Politics Fails was published in October 2023 and draws on almost two decades of his research and cutting edge scholarship across the social sciences, to explain why politics fails so often. Throughout the book, he traces how our individual self-interest sabotages our collective goals.

Ben also delivered the BBC's 2023 Reith Lectures. His four lectures, titled 'Our Democratic Future', consider how to build political systems that work for all and are robust enough to face the wide-ranging challenges of the 21st century. They can be heard on BBC Sounds.

Ben Ansell

Publications

Articles

2022

Ansell, B. and Cansunar, A. (2022) “Local economies, local wealth, and economic perceptions.”
Haslberger, M. et al. (2022) “Housing wealth and tax preferences across Europe: experimental evidence.”
Ansell, B. et al. (no date) “How do wealth and income affect individuals’ attitudes towards redistribution and taxation?.”
Elkjær, M. et al. (no date) “Why is it so hard to counteract wealth inequality? Evidence from England and Wales.”
Ansell, B., Cansunar, A. and Elkjær, M. (no date) “Tax exposure and political preferences.”
Ansell, B., Bokobza, L. and Nyrup, J. (no date) “From your house to their House? Representation, political rhetoric and housing markets.”

Journal Articles

2024

Ansell, B. et al. (2024) “Do national innovation projects shape citizens’ public health behaviours?”, Healthcare Management Forum [Preprint].
Elkjaer, M. et al. (2025) “Why is it so hard to counteract wealth inequality? Evidence from the United Kingdom”, World Politics [Preprint].
Ansell, B. and Gingrich, J. (2024) “Political inequality”, Oxford Open Economics, 3(S1), pp. i233 - i261.

2023

Ahlquist, J. and Ansell, B. (2023) “Unemployment insurance, risk, and the acquisition of specific skills: an experimental approach”, Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy, 4(3), pp. 401–429.
ANSELL, B. and GINGRICH, J. (2023) “Political Inequality”, Oxford Open Economics [Preprint].

2022

Ansell, B. et al. (2022) “Sheltering populists? House prices and the support for populist parties”, Journal of Politics, 84(3), pp. 1420–1436.

2021

Cansunar, A. and Ansell, B. (2021) “The political consequences of housing (un)affordability”, Journal of European Social Policy, 31(5), pp. 597–613.
Ansell, B. and Samuels, D. (2021) “Desk rejecting: a better use of your time”, PS: Political Science and Politics, 54(4), pp. 686–689.
Ansell, B., Cansunar, A. and Elkjaer, M. (2021) “Social distancing, politics, and wealth”, West European Politics, 44(5-6), pp. 1283–1313.

2019

Adler, D. and Ansell, B. (2019) “Housing and populism”, West European Politics, 43(2), pp. 344–365.
Ansell, B. (2019) “The politics of housing”, Annual Review of Political Science, 22, pp. 165–185.
Ansell, B. and Adler, D. (2019) “Brexit and the Politics of Housing in Britain”, The Political Quarterly, 90(S2), pp. 105–116.

2018

Ansell, B., Broz, J. and Flaherty, T. (2018) “Global capital markets, housing prices, and partisan fiscal policies”, Economics and Politics, 30(3), pp. 307–339.

2017

Ansell, B. and Ahlquist, J. (2017) “Taking credit: Redistribution and borrowing in an age of economic polarization”, World Politics, 69(4), pp. 640–675.
Samuels, D. and Ansell, B. (2017) “Review: From Open Secrets to Secret Voting: Democratic Electoral Reforms and Voter Autonomy. By Isabela Mares. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. 286p.”, Perspectives on Politics, 15(2), pp. 561–563.
Ansell, B. and Gingrich, J. (2017) “Mismatch: University Education and Labor Market Institutions”, PS: Political Science and Politics, 50(2), pp. 423–425.

2016

Ansell, B. and Samuels, D. (2016) “Journal Editors and ‘Results Free’ Research: A Cautionary Note”, Comparative Political Studies, 49(13), pp. 1809–1815.

2014

Ansell, B. (2014) “The political economy of ownership: housing markets and the welfare state”, American Political Science Review, 108(2), pp. 383–402.
Gingrich, J. and Ansell, B. (2014) “Sorting for schools: housing, education and inequality”, Socio-Economic Review, 12(2), pp. 329–351.
Broz, J. and Ansell, B. (2014) “International Capital Flows, Housing Prices, and Fiscal Policy Preferences in Central and Eastern Europe.”

2013

ANSELL, B. and LINDVALL, J. (2013) “The Political Origins of Primary Education Systems: Ideology, Institutions, and Interdenominational Conflict in an Era of Nation-Building”, American Political Science Review, 107(3), pp. 505–522.

Books

2021

ANSELL, B. and Lindvall, J. (2021) Inward Conquest. Cambridge University Press.

2020

Ansell, B. and Lindvall, J. (2020) Inward Conquest. Cambridge University Press (CUP).

Chapters

2022

Gingrich, J. and Ansell, B. (2022) “Policy and Politics in Disjuncture in an Age of Secular Stagnation”, in C. Landwehr, A. Schäfer, and T. Saalfeld (eds.) Contested Representation Challenges, Shortcomings and Reforms. Cambridge University Press.

2021

Ansell, B. and Gingrich, J. (2021) “Concentration and commodification: the political economy of postindustrialism in America and beyond”, in K. Thelen et al. (eds.) The American Political Economy: Politics, Markets, and Power. Cambridge University Press.
Ansell, B. and Gingrich, J. (2021) “Concentration and Commodification: The Political Economy of Postindustrialism in America and Beyond”, in K. Thelen et al. (eds.) The American Political Economy Politics, Markets, and Power. Cambridge University Press.

2017

Ansell, B. and Gingrich, J. (2017) “Skills in Demand? Higher Education and Social Investment in Europe”, in P. Manow, . Schwander H, and B. Palier (eds.) Welfare State Reforms and Electoral Politics. Oxford University Press.

2015

Gingrich, J. and Ansell, B. (2015) “The Dynamics of Social Investment: Human Capital, Activation, and Care”, in The Politics of Advanced Capitalism. Cambridge University Press (CUP), pp. 282–304.

Datasets

2023

Ansell, B. and Gingrich, J. (2023) “Replication material for Political Inequality”. University of Oxford.

2022

Nyrup, J. and Ansell, B. (2022) “WEALTHPOL 1 Micro-data Wealth Information and Attitudes Dictionary Dataset”. University of Oxford.
Ansell, B., Bokobza, L. and Elkjaer, M. (2022) “WEALTHPOL Inheritance Tax Dataset”. University of Oxford.
Markgraf, J., Ansell, B. and Cansunar, A. (2022) “Long-Run Wealth Inequality Dataset”. University of Oxford.
Ansell, B. et al. (2022) “WEALTHPOL UK Survey Data on Wealth Inequality”. University of Oxford.
Cansunar, A. and Ansell, B. (2022) “Replication data for The political consequences of housing (un)affordability”. University of Oxford.
Ansell, B. et al. (2022) “WEALTHPOL Online Lab experiment data”. University of Oxford.
Ansell, B. et al. (2022) “WEALTHPOL Europe Survey Data”. University of Oxford.

Conference Papers

2022

Haslberger, M., Elkjaer, M. and Ansell, B. (2022) “Housing wealth, information, and political efficacy”, in Proceedings of the 12th European Political Science Association Annual Conference (EPSA 2022). European Political Science Association.
Haslberger, M. et al. (2022) “Why is it so hard to counteract wealth inequality? Evidence from England and Wales”, in. American Political Science Association.
Ansell, B. et al. (2022) “Persistent inequality: mobility and intergenerational redistribution”, in. American Political Science Association.
Ansell, B., Cansunar, A. and Markgraf, J. (2022) “How does wealth shape societies? cross-national wealth inequality in historical perspective”, in. Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting.

Reports

2024

Ansell, B. and Gingrich, J. (2024) Political inequality, Oxford Open Economics. Oxford University Press, pp. i233 - i261.

2022

Ansell, B. and Gingrich, J. (2022) Political inequality. Institute for Fiscal Studies.

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