Professor Matt Qvortrup

Described by the BBC as “the world’s leading expert on referendums,” Professor Qvortrup is also the Chair of political science at Coventry University and an authority on democracy and British and European politics.

As editor-in-chief of the Q1 journal European Political Science Review, he has written widely on the global threat to democracy and dictatorship. In addition, Professor Qvortrup has worked with brain-scientists to understand the neuroscience of political action.

A former journalist, Professor Qvortrup appears regularly on BBC World, and has written op-eds for The Guardian, Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, El Mundo, and The Times.

He provides expert analysis on:

• Referendums in democracies as well as in dictatorships – author of Referendums and Ethnic Conflict
• British politics, especially on the Conservative Party and on Scotland
• The Global threat to democracy
• German politics – author of the acclaimed biography, Angela Merkel: Europe’s Most Influential Leader (5th edition 2021)
• The politics and law on creating new states – author of I Want to Break Free: A Practical Guide to Making a New Country
• Neuropolitics and how brain science can help us understand political action – editor of the forthcoming The Routledge Handbook of Neuropolitics