Dr Claire Mcloughlin

• PhD in political sociology, University of Birmingham, 2017
• MA International Relations and World Order, University of Leicester
• BA History and Politics, University of Leicester

Claire McLoughlin is Associate Professor of Politics and Development in the International Development Department at the University of Birmingham. She is lead editor of the widely adopted textbook The Politics of Development (SAGE, 2024), which has become a core teaching text across universities internationally. With over 20 years’ experience spanning academia, policy engagement and advisory work with international development agencies, she is recognised for shaping debates at the intersection of politics, governance and service delivery in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.

Her research focuses on the political economy of public service delivery, state legitimacy and governance in crisis-affected settings. She has published widely on when and how services influence processes of state legitimation, accountability and social order, and on the political and institutional conditions that shape these effects. Her recent work with the World Bank has examined service delivery in contexts of protracted crisis and violence, focusing on how development actors can support services that are effective, avoid harm and have the potential to last under conditions of insecurity, institutional fragmentation, scarcity and contested authority. This work has helped translate political economy analysis into operational guidance for development practitioners working in some of the world’s most complex crisis settings.

Claire has led and collaborated on major research programmes with international organisations, including the World Bank, and her work has been published in leading journals such as World Development, Governance, Public Administration and Development and Development in Practice. She previously served as Director of Research at the Developmental Leadership Program (2018–2023), an international research initiative examining how political processes shape development outcomes across the Asia-Pacific.

She currently serves as Deputy Director of Education in the School of Government at Birmingham and is an elected member of the Council of the Development Studies Association. She also founded the University’s first undergraduate programmes in International Development, reflecting her longstanding commitment to advancing innovative teaching and curriculum development in the field.

Claire contributes to teaching in the following areas:

• Governance and state-building
• Making policy
• Development management
• Critical approaches to development

Public services, state (de-)legitimation, the politics of public goods distribution

• Service delivery in crisis-affected contexts
• Social contracts and state legitimation
• Co-production and collective action beyond the state

Claire Mcloughlin is a political sociologist of development whose research examines the politics of public service delivery, governance and reform in fragile, conflict-affected and divided societies. Her work explores how power, institutions and political incentives shape who receives services, how they are delivered, and with what consequences for legitimacy, accountability and social order. She is especially interested in the distributive and relational politics of service provision: how welfare systems allocate resources, mediate state–society relations, and become embedded in political settlements over time.

Claire has published widely on the relationship between service delivery and state legitimation, including the conditions under which services strengthen, weaken or reconfigure citizens’ perceptions of public authority. Her current research extends this agenda into protracted crisis and violence settings, examining how service delivery systems operate under conditions of insecurity, institutional fragmentation, scarcity and uncertainty. This work focuses on the trade-offs faced by development actors seeking to support services that are effective, avoid harm, and have the potential to last.

More broadly, Claire’s research sits at the intersection of political sociology, development studies and comparative politics. She has worked on governance reform, collective action, political settlements, social contracts, and the politics of aid in crisis-affected contexts. She leads and collaborates on research programmes on the politics of development and reform, including work with international development organisations, and serves on the editorial board of Governance.

Claire’s work has had significant policy and practice impact, particularly through sustained engagement with the World Bank and wider development community. Her research has informed operational thinking on service delivery in fragile and conflict-affected settings, helping development actors better understand how to navigate political constraints, manage trade-offs, and support services in ways that are effective, conflict-sensitive and institutionally durable. Through commissioned research, advisory work and practitioner engagement, she has contributed to debates on how international organisations can adapt development practice to contexts of protracted crisis, contested authority and institutional fragmentation.