Anthony King (political scientist)

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Anthony King
FBA
King giving a talk on "The Blunders of our Governments" at the Essex Book Festival, 2014
Born
Anthony Stephen King

(1934-11-17)17 November 1934
Canada
Died12 January 2017(2017-01-12) (aged 82)
NationalityCanadian-British
Alma materQueen's University, Ontario
University of Oxford
Scientific career
FieldsGovernment, psephology
InstitutionsUniversity of Essex
Thesis Some aspects of the history of the Liberal Party in Britain, 1906–1914

Anthony Stephen King FBA (17 November 1934 – 12 January 2017) was a Canadian-British professor of government, psephologist and commentator. He taught at the Department of Government at the University of Essex for many years.

Early life[edit]

King was born in Canada[1][2] on 17 November 1934,[3] the son of Marjorie and Harold King.[3] He gained a B.A. in History and Economics at Queen's University, Ontario.[4][5] In the 1950s, he moved to UK as a Rhodes Scholar[1] to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford, after which he gained a D.Phil.[4][2] with thesis titled "Some aspects of the history of the Liberal Party in Britain, 1906–1914".[6]

Career[edit]

He initially taught at Magdalen College, Oxford, before transferring to Essex, from which he never officially retired.[1][7] From 1969, he was Professor of Government at Essex, where he also led a Wednesday brainstorming class of selected bright students from the Department of Government.[8] King taught the course GV100 – Introduction to Politics.[9] He also taught at Princeton and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, in the United States.[8]

He regularly appeared on election results programming and analysed their implications. For each UK General Election from 1983 to 2005, he was BBC television's analyst on their election night programming.[2] On a monthly basis, he analysed political opinion polls on voting intentions for The Daily Telegraph.[2] He also wrote many books on politics and was co-editor of the Britain at the Polls series of essays and, in 2008, The British Constitution.[5]

King was co-author with David Butler of two Nuffield College election studies (those for 1964 and 1966) and author of Britain Says Yes: the 1975 Referendum on the Common Market and Running Scared: Why America's Politicians Campaign Too Much and Govern Too Little.[3] He was also co-author with Ivor Crewe of the semi-official SDP: The Birth, Life and Death of the Social Democratic Party[10] and The Blunders of our Governments.[1][5] He edited The New American Political System,[11] New Labour Triumphs: Britain at the Polls 1997,[5][12] Britain at the Polls 2001[5][13] and Britain at the Polls 2005.[5]

King was a member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life and the Royal Commission on the Reform of the House of Lords (the Wakeham Commission).[14][15] In 2010, he was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy.[8][16] He also served as an associate at the Institute for Government, a non-partisan charity that aims to improve the effectiveness of central Government in the UK.[17] During the latter part of his life, his research focused on: the changing British constitution; the British prime ministership; American politics and government and the history of democracy.

King was also a member of the Academia Europaea, a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an honorary life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.[8]

Personal life[edit]

King married twice.[3] His first wife Vera Korte, whom he married in 1965, died in 1971.[3] He married his second wife Jan Reece in 1980.[3]

King died on 12 January 2017 at the age of 82.[1][2]

Publications[edit]

  • British Members of Parliament: A Self-portrait (1974)[3]
  • "The View from Europe" with David Sanders in Charles O. Jones, ed., The Reagan Legacy: Promise and Performance (1988)[4]
  • "Margaret Thatcher as a Political Leader" in Robert Skidelsky, ed. Thatcherism. ISBN 0-701-13342-2 (1988)[4]
  • Britain at the Polls 1992 (editor)[3]
  • The New American Political System. ISBN 0-333-55053-6 (editor) (1990)[3]
  • SDP: The Birth, Life and Death of the Social Democratic Party with Ivor Crewe (co-winner of the 1996 W.J.M. Mackenzie Prize awarded by the Political Studies Association for the best book in the field of political science) (1995)[3][4]
  • Running Scared: Why America's Politicians Campaign Too Much and Govern Too Little (1997)[3]
  • New Labour Triumphs: Britain at the Polls (editor) (1998)[12]
  • The British general election of 1966 with David Butler. ISBN 0-333-77870-7 (1999)[18]
  • Does the United Kingdom Still Have a Constitution? ISBN 0-421-74930-X (2001)[3]
  • Leaders' Personalities and the Outcomes of Democratic Elections. ISBN 0-198-29791-2 (editor) (2002)[3]
  • The British Constitution. ISBN 0-199-23232-6 (2007)[19]
  • The Founding Fathers v. the People: Paradoxes of American Democracy. ISBN 978-0674045736 (2012)[20]
  • The Blunders of Our Governments with Ivor Crewe. ISBN 1-780-74405-6 (2014)[21]
  • Who Governs Britain? ISBN 0-141-98066-4 (2015)[22]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e Kettle, Martin (12 January 2017). "Anthony King, face of BBC election night coverage, dies aged 82". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Political expert Professor Anthony King dies aged 82". BBC News. 12 January 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m The International Who's Who 2004. Psychology Press. 2003. p. 889. ISBN 9781857432176.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Professor Anthony King". University of Essex. Archived from the original on 14 January 2017.
  5. ^ a b c d e f "University of Essex professor Anthony King dies". Gazette. 12 January 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  6. ^ King, A. S. "Some aspects of the history of the Liberal Party in Britain, 1906–1914". University of Oxford SOLO catalogue.
  7. ^ "Academic Staff: Professor Anthony King". Archived from the original on 20 November 2010. Retrieved 8 April 2011.
  8. ^ a b c d "Professor Anthony King elected Fellow of the British Academy". University of Essex, UK. 23 July 2010. Archived from the original on 25 September 2012. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
  9. ^ "University of Essex :: Module Directory detail". Archived from the original on 21 October 2009. Retrieved 13 October 2010.
  10. ^ Crewe, Ivor; King, Anthony (1995). SDP: The Birth, Life and Death of the Social Democratic Party (illustrated, reprint, revised ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198293132.
  11. ^ King, Anthony, ed. (1990). The New American Political System (2, illustrated, revised ed.). AEI Press. ISBN 9780333550533.
  12. ^ a b King, Anthony Stephen, ed. (1998). New labour triumphs: Britain at the polls (illustrated ed.). Chatham House Publishers. ISBN 9781566430579.
  13. ^ King, Anthony Stephen, ed. (2002). Britain at the polls, 2001 (illustrated, revised ed.). Chatham House Publishers. ISBN 9781889119748.
  14. ^ "Standards in public life – Previous members". Archived from the original on 28 March 2010. Retrieved 13 October 2010.
  15. ^ "Royal Commission on Reform of the House of Lords: A House for the Future" (PDF). HM Government. January 2000. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2006. Retrieved 13 October 2010.
  16. ^ "Results of 2010 Fellowship Elections". British Academy. Archived from the original on 24 September 2010. Retrieved 13 October 2010.
  17. ^ "Our people". Institute for Government. Archived from the original on 16 September 2010. Retrieved 13 October 2010.
  18. ^ Butler, David; King, Anthony Stephen (1999). The British general election of 1966 (illustrated, reprint ed.). Macmillan. ISBN 9780333778708.
  19. ^ The British Constitution (illustrated, reprint ed.). Oxford University Press. 2007. ISBN 9780199232321.
  20. ^ The Founding Fathers v. the People: Paradoxes of American Democracy (first ed.). Harvard University Press. 2012. ISBN 9780674045736.
  21. ^ King, Anthony; Crewe, Ivor (2014). The Blunders of Our Governments (revised ed.). Oneworld Publications. ISBN 9781780744056.
  22. ^ "Who Governs Britain? review – a timely examination of how the distribution of power has shifted". The Guardian. 8 April 2015. Retrieved 13 January 2017.

Sources[edit]

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