Dr Alexander Fitzpatrick

(he/him)

BA (Joint Hons), MA (cum laude), PhD

Overview

Alexander is a Lecturer in Politics (Comparative Politics and Public Policy). His research focuses on lobbying, regulation, and comparative public policy. He is particularly interested in how transparency and public accountability mechanisms – such as lobbying registers – shape the strategies of policy actors and the policymaking process itself. His work explores how data and policies intended to govern state-society relations may also serve as a strategic informational resource for those involved, often producing unintended effects. His approach combines large-N quantitative analysis with surveys of policymakers and interest groups, as well as in-depth qualitative interviews and case studies – aimed at understanding the people behind the numbers. He also undertakes research on trade policy, in partnership with the central and devolved institutions of the UK and the ESRC-funded Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy.

Alexander joined the School of Law and Politics in 2024, after completing his PhD in Political Science at UCL’s Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy, where he was named a Bentham Scholar. His PhD developed one of the largest original cross-national datasets on lobbying in Europe, addressing how lobbyists and policymakers engage with public data to inform their advocacy and policy-making strategies. His expertise has been recognised by the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA), which lists him as a policy expert on lobbying and transparency registers.

As a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy (2024–2025), Alexander conducted research on post-Brexit trade agreements and the ways in which devolution and institutional structures constrain interest group participation in UK-level trade policymaking. He continues to investigate trade policy using mixed methods approaches and is particularly interested in the intersection of interest group mobilisation and trade governance. This work sees him write academic articles as well as policy-facing Briefing Papers, allowing him to feed his research back to the policy spaces he addresses.

Committed to research impact, Alexander regularly engages with governments, institutions, and regulators. He has presented his work to the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), various teams within the Welsh and Scottish civil services, and submitted written evidence to the House of Commons Welsh Affairs Committee. He has also been invited to advise the Independent Remuneration Board of the Senedd on public ethics and financial rules, as well as engagements with transparency regulators in EU Member States.