Andrew Blick is Professor of Politics and Contemporary History, and co-director of the Centre for British Democracy, Department of Political Economy.

Prof Blick uses the study of history to broaden understanding of contemporary political issues and debates. His areas of interest include democratic development; the UK constitution; the impact of the Internet on politics; special advisers and the UK Civil Service; and the office of the UK Prime Minister.

Prof Blick is the author of numerous publications, including 15 books, for nine of which he is the sole author.

Prof Blick has provided his expertise to legal cases in the UK and abroad; and to the UK Parliament. In 2025, he was an expert witness at the High Court of the Republic of Ireland in Dublin, providing historic evidence in a constitutional case involving attendance at meetings of the Irish government. In 2022, Prof Blick was an expert witness at the High Court in London, on the subject of the constitutional implications of the use of private online messaging services in the taking of decisions inside the UK government. He was historical adviser to the Welsh Government in its intervention in the landmark Supreme Court Article 50 case of 2016. From 2010-15 he was research fellow to the first ever parliamentary inquiry into the possibility of introducing a written constitution for the UK, carried out by the House of Commons Political and Constitutional Reform Committee.

Prof Blick has secured various external grants as Principal Investigator, including, in 2019, from the Rowntree Trusts and Open Society Foundations to write a report on how a UK constitutional convention could function, at the request of the parliamentary leadership of four of the main Westminster parties. From 2021-2024 he was the PI for the King’s end of an AHRC-funded project led from the University of Cambridge assessing the history of democracy from ancient times to the contemporary era, through considering written primary sources.

Prof Blick was Head of Department of Political Economy from 2020-2024. Between 2015 and 2020, he was director of History & Policy, a UK-wide initiative for the promotion of the work of academic historians to policy-makers.

Before his academic appointment in 2013, Prof Blick had extensive experience working for think tanks, in the UK Parliament and as an intern at No.10 Downing Street. He has advised democratic reform groups based in a number of countries, and worked with organisations including the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. He has carried out consultancy work for the UK Cabinet Office, the United Nations Development Programme, European Commission, European Parliament, and UK National Audit Office. Prof Blick has run training sessions for staff in the office of the UK Prime Minister. In 2024 he drafted for circulation by UK parliamentary educational services a short account of the UK constitution.

Prof Blick is the editor of The Constitution in Review, a six-monthly analysis of developments in the UK constitution produced by the United Kingdom Constitution Monitoring Group, a group of leading experts and practitioners. He is senior adviser to the Constitution Society, a charity for the promotion of awareness of constitutional issues in the UK. Prof Blick has made frequent domestic and international media appearances, and often provides evidence to parliamentary select committees.

Office hours

Prof Blick is on sabbatical in semester one this year. Please e-mail him for an appointment.

Publications

UK Politics (Oxford University Press, 2nd edition 2025). This book was launched as an entirely new undergraduate textbook on UK politics in 2021, taking into account developments such as the rise of the Internet; equality and diversity issues; and the advent of Brexit. The fully updated second edition was published in 2025.

Could it Happen Here? The Day a Prime Minister Refuses to Resign (with P. Hennessy, Haus, London, 2025). Presents a scenario in which a politician resists the convention that, having lost the support of the House of Commons, they are required to relinquish the office of Prime Minister. Serves as the basis for a wider discussion of vulnerabilities within the democratic order of the UK.

Democratic Turbulence in the United Kingdom (De Gruyter, Berlin, 2023). This book applies theories of democratic backsliding and populism to the UK in the period since 2016, employing historical research methods for contemporary purposes.

The Bonfire of the Decencies: Repairing and Restoring the British Constitution (with P. Hennessy, Haus, London, 2023). Discusses recent challenges posed by populist political movements and politicians to the UK constitution, measuring behaviour against standards as set out in official publications.

Documents on the Nineteenth Century United Kingdom Constitution (four volumes, Routledge, London, 2023)

Electrified Democracy: the Internet and the United Kingdom Parliament in history (Cambridge University Press, 2021). A study of the impact of communications technology on politics, taking the Internet and the UK Parliament as its focus, also extending to the printing press, the radio and television for comparative purposes.

Other publications include:

The Referendum in Britain: a history (with L. Atkinson and M. Qvortrup, Oxford University Press, 2020)

People Who Live in the Dark: the history of the special adviser in British politics(Politico’s/Methuen, 2004)

Premiership: the development, nature and power of the office of the British Prime Minister (with George Jones, Imprint Academic, 2010)

At Power’s Elbow: aides to the Prime Minister from Sir Robert Walpole to David Cameron (with George Jones, Biteback, 2013)

Beyond Magna Carta: a constitution for the United Kingdom (Bloomsbury/Hart, 2015)

The Codes of the Constitution (Bloomsbury/Hart, 2016)

Butler’s British Political Facts (ed. with R. Mortimore, Palgrave, 2018)

Stretching the Constitution: the Brexit shock in historic perspective (Bloomsbury/Hart, 2019)

Research

Prof Blick's main areas of interest are:

Prof Blick's main areas of interest are:

• The history and future of the UK constitution, including in relation to Brexit;
• The Internet and UK democracy in historic perspective;
• The history of the UK Civil Service, special advisers, and the office of Prime Minister; and
• Democratic development in the UK, and the lessons that might be drawn for international democracy promotion.

PhD supervision 

Prof Blick is interested in supervising PhDs in the following areas:

• Constitutional reform in the UK including parliamentary reform, devolution, and the prospects for a codified or written UK constitution
• The Civil Service and special advisers
• The office of Prime Minister
• Constitutional conventions and the Royal Prerogative