Dr Eunice Goes
Professor of Politics
Contact:
Email: eunice.goes@richmond.ac.uk
School: School of Communications, Arts & Social Sciences
Research centre: The State Power & Globalisation
About
I joined the School of Communications, Arts and Social Sciences at Richmond University in 2008. I hold a DPhil in Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (2002), a M.A. in Politics from the University of Warwick (1997) and a B.A. in International Relations from Lusíada University (Lisbon, Portugal, 1994).
My areas of expertise are British party politics, Britain’s relationship with Europe and European politics, political ideologies I am also very interested in exploring the role of ideas in politics. I am currently writing a book on the history of European social democracy (to be published by Agenda Publishing in 2024) and conducting research on how political parties relate to ideologies. This research project started in my 2016 monograph The Labour Party Under Ed Miliband: Trying But Failing to Renew Social Democracy (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016), was further developed in the article “Ideas and Party Change: Predistribution and Socialist Renewal in the Labour Party Under Ed Miliband“, published in the Journal of Political Ideologies, June 2021 Vol. 26, 2, 180-200. This article was the Winner of the inaugural Michael Freeden Prize for best article published by the Journal of Political Ideologies in 2021 (awarded in 2022).
I have also conducted research on Britain’s Labour Party since 1994, the Portuguese Socialist Party and the Portuguese Parliament, and on political parties approaches to European integration.
I am passionate about teaching and my pedagogy focuses on supporting students to develop their critical thinking skills. In recent years, this approach has translated in the creation of new assessment formats that enable students to learn how to apply theory to concrete examples.
I am an enthusiastic blogger and often contribute to the academic blogs The Conversation.com, LSE Democratic Audit, LSE Politics&Policy, LSE Europp, Political Insight and OpenDemocracy.net, Social Europe. I am a regular panellist in the BBC programmes Dateline London and Weekend and I am one of the current editors of the journal Renewal: A Journal of Social Democracy and I collaborate with the Federation of European Progressive Studies.
You can contact me on Eunice.goes@richmond.ac.uk or follow me on Twitter @DrEuniceGoes.
Research interests
My research interests lie in British politics and the role of ideas in policy-making and in ideologies. I am currently writing a monograph on the history of European social democracy.
Teaching & learning
I teach on:
- Political Science
- Development Studies
- International Relations
Some of the courses I teach:
- PLT 3100 Foundations of Politics
- PLT 5205 British Politics: Inside Parliament
- PLT 6430 Democracy and Democratisation
- PLT 6205 Policy-Making in the Globalised World
- PLT 6296/6297 Senior Seminar I and II in Political Science
Research outputs
Books:
- “A Short History of Social Democracy”, Agenda Publishing, 2024 (forthcoming)
- “The Labour Party Under Ed Miliband: Trying But Failing to Renew Social Democracy”, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016)
- “A Era Blair Em Exame (The Blair Era Under Examination)”, Lisbon: Quimera, 2003.
Journal Articles:
- “Ideas and Party Change: Predistribution and Socialist Renewal in the Labour Party Under Ed Miliband”, Journal of Political Ideologies, June 2021 Vol. 26, 2, 180-200. Winner of the inaugural Michael Freeden Prize for best article published by the Journal of Political Ideologies in 2021
- “The Labour Party Under Keir Starmer: Thanks, But no ‘Isms’ Please!”, The Political Quarterly, 2021, Vol. 92, Issue 2, April-July.
- “Wrapped Up in the Union Jack: Starmer’s Patriotic Turn”, Renewal: Journal of Social Democracy, 2021, Vol. 29, No. 1.
- “Labour’s Campaign: A Defeat of Epic Proportions”, Parliamentary Affairs, 2020, Vol. 73, Supplementary Issue, 84-102.
- “It’s the Economy, Stupid! The British General Election of 2017”, in Marmara Journal of European Studies: Special Issue Brexit, 2019, Vol 26, No. 1
- “Jez, We Can!’ Labour’s Campaign: A Defeat With the Taste of Victory”, Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 17, Issue I, March 2018, pp. 59-71
- “Eleições no Reino Unido: Efeitos Brexit e Austeridade Produzem Surpresa Eleitoral”, Relações Internacionais, Vol 56, December 2017, pp. 77-92
- “The Liberal Democrats and the Coalition: Driven to the Edge of Europe”, The Political Quarterly, 86 Issue 3, April 2015, 93-100,
- “Power and the Public Sphere: Lessons from Tahrir Square”, Portuguese Journal of Social Sciences, 14. No.1 March 2015, 57-70,
- “Keeping Tabs on Coalition Partners: An analysis of How the Liberal Democrats Influenced the Coalition’s Approach to the EU”, Parliamentary Affairs, Volume 67, Number 1, January 2014, 45-63,
- “Deliberation and the Plural Polity: Talk as a Tool for Social Cohesion”, Portuguese Journal of Political Science, Vol. 1, Issue 2, 2012,
- “Assessing New Labour’s Decade in Power”, Relações Internacionais, winter 2008, pp. 97-114,
- “Entente Cordiale: The Engine of European Defence”, Relações Internacionais, May 2004, pp. 95-103.
Book Chapters:
- “From Workers on Company Boards to Workers’ Voices: Explaining May’s Failed One Nation Industrial Policy”, in Andrew Crines and David Jeffery (editors) Policies and Politics under Prime Minister Theresa May: A Question of Statecraft, Palgrave Macmillan, 2023 (forthcoming)
- (co-written with Cristina Leston-Bandeira) “The Portuguese Assembleia da Republica in Context”, in Jorge M. Fernandes and Cristina Leston-Bandeira (editors) The Iberian Legislatures in Comparative Perspective, Abingdon: Routledge, 2019,
- “The British Party System(s): Fragmented, Unstable and Very Capricious”, in Marco Lisi (editor) Party System Change, the European Crisis and the State of Democracy, Abingdon: Routledge, 2018
- “’Jez, We Can!’ Labour’s Campaign: A Defeat With the Taste of Victory”, in J. Tonge, C. Leston-Bandeira, S. Wilks-Heeg (editors) Britain Votes 2017, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018
- “The Left and the Financial Crisis: The Labour Party in Search of a New Economic Narrative”, in João Rosas and Ana Rita Ferreira (Editors) Left and Right: The Great Dichotomy Revisited, (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars, 2013),
- “The End of British Tolerance? Changing Elite Attitudes Towards Muslim Veiled Women in Britain”, in Media, Culture and Identity and Europe, Savaş Arslan, Defne Karaosmanoğlu, Süheyla Kirca Schroeder (Editors), (Istanbul: Bahçeşehir University Press, 2009),
- “It’s Good to Talk: Addressing Moral Conflict in Multicultural Societies”, in Tarun Pokyia, Managing a Multicultural World: Policy and Practice (New Delhi: ICFAI University Press, 2008),
- “The Third Way and the Politics of Community” in Luke Martell et al. The Third Way and Beyond: Criticisms, Futures and Alternatives, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004).
Non-academic journal articles:
- “New Labour and Ideas”, in The Challenge Ahead for Starmer’s Project: How to Understand the 1997 ‘Project’, London: Mile End Institute, 2022.
- “The Leftward March of Labour”, British Politics Review, Vol. 13, N. 4, Autumn 2018, pp. 11-13
- “Democratising Social Democracy”, Fabian Review, December 2018, Vol. 130, No. 4. p. 14
- ‘Changing the Scene’, Fabian Review, April 2017
- “The Labour Party Under Ed Miliband: Trying But Failing to Renew Social Democracy”, Renewal, Vol 24, No. 1, 2016, 29-40
- “The Durham Miner’s Role in Labour’s Current Culture War”, in Daniel Jackson, Einar Thorsen, Dominic Wring (editors) The EU Referendum Analysis 2016: Media, Voters and the Campaign, PSA/CSJCC/Loughborough University, 2016.
Blog Posts
- “Portuguese Elections Too Close to Call”, Social Europe, 27 January 2022.
- “To Win Back the Red Wall, Starmer Should Avoid the Politics of Anger and Focus on a ‘Bread and Roses’ Approach Instead”, LSE British Politics and Policy Blog, 10 April 2021.
- “Wrapped Up in the Union Jack: Starmer’s Patriotic Turn”, Renewal: Journal of Social Democracy, Blog, 14 February 2021.
- “Predistribution: The Driver of Milibandism: The Role of Ideas in Party Change”, Ideology, Theory and Practice, 04 February 2021.
- “StarmerActs Swiftly to Turn the Page on the Corbyn Era”, 10.2020,
- “Under New Leadership: Keir Starmer’s Party Conference Speech and theEmbrace of Personality Politics”, 23.09.2020, LSE British Politics and Policy.
- “Keir Starmer’s First 100 Days as Labour Leader: Reassure First, Transform (Much) Later”, LSE British Politics and Policy, 02.07.2020.
- “Portuguese Left Tests the Limits of European Social Democracy”, Hard Times, Vol. 103, No. 1 (2019) 55-64.
- “Portuguese Socialists Expected to Return to Power But Without a Majority”, Social Europe, 3.10.2019.
- “Labour and Brexit: Corbyn’s Neutrality on a Second Referendum is Not Neutral”, LSE British Politics and Policy, 23.09.2019.
- “Democratising Social Democracy”, Fabian Review, December 2018, Vol. 130, No. 4. p. 14.
- “Social Democrats Must Say Another Globalisation is Possible”, Social Europe,19.12.2018, ‘Changing the Scene’, Fabian Review, April 2017.
Research Projects in Focus
The Labour Party Under Ed Miliband: Trying But Failing to Renew Social Democracy
The 2008 global financial crisis offered an opportunity for a renewal of social democratic politics in Europe. In 2010, the recently elected Labour leader, Ed Miliband, was one of Europe’s social democratic leaders who believed that a social democratic moment was within his grasp. By mapping the ideas that informed Labour’s 2015 electoral manifesto this book explains Labour’s attempt to develop a social democratic programme that addressed the policy puzzles raised by the global financial crisis. But timing, the scarcity of ideas and institutional constraints conspired against these efforts. This failure is one of the reasons why Labour lost the 2015 general election.
The Blair Era (Lisbon: Quimera, 2003)
This book examines the political and policy achievements of the New Labour governments until 2003. Blair’s approach to the economy, social justice, constitutional reform, foreign policy and Europe are examined and assessed in the context of Third Way politics.
Extracts from Recent Research
“The Coalition and Europe: A Tale of Reckless Drivers, Steady Navigators and Imperfect Maps“, in Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 67, No. 1 January 2014.
This paper examines how the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats negotiated and agreed the coalition’s approach to the EU with a view to shed light on how each party exerted influence over this policy area. For that purpose the article analyses how the two parties of the coalition negotiated the programme of government, agreed on the distribution of government portfolios and have handled three of the most divisive European issues faced by the coalition, namely the European Union Act 2011, the exercise of the veto at the December 2011 EU summit, and the announcement of the referendum on EU membership. The article argues that the Conservatives are the drivers of the coalition’s approach to the EU however the Liberal Democrats have acted as steady navigators ensuring, most of the time, that the agreed roadmap is respected.
Blogs
- Social Democrats Should Say Another Europe is Possible’, 19.12.2018
- ‘Labour’s ‘Constructive Ambiguity’ About Brexit is Past Its Sell-By-Date: It’s Time to Come Clean About Brexit’’, UK in a Changing Europe, 25.09.2018
- ‘Portugal’s Eurozone Reform Proposals Can Renew Social Democracy’, OpenDemocracy.net, 13 June 2018
- ‘Defining Mayism: One Nation Toryism With a Hint of Papal Purple and a Dash of Labour Red’, UK in a Changing Europe, 19.05.2017
- ‘As Electoral Disaster Looms, Labour Should Start Preparing for post-Corbyn Era’, LSE British Politics and Policy, 20 April 2017
- ‘It Takes Two: Corbyn’s Re-election is Not Enough – more must be done to unite the party’, LSE British Politics and Policy blog
- ‘Labour’s Schism on Immigration: Playing With Fire’, UK in a Changing Europe (ESRC project), 28.09.2016
- ‘Why Pulling Out of Europe Won’t Give Britain Complete Control Over Its Affairs’, The Conversation, 27.01.2016
- ‘Labour is More than the Shadow Cabinet, and Corbyn Needs to Engage with It’, LSE Politics and Policy Blog, 11.01.2016
- ‘Free Vote on EU Referendum Could See Cameron Keep the Peace Within His Party’, The Conversation, 06.01.2106. Republished in the Democratic Audit.
- ‘2015: The Year Britain Lost Its Opposition’, The Conversation, 22.12.2015
