Max Kiefel

Max Kiefel is a Democracy Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation for the 2022-2023 academic year. His research is in political sociology, party politics and comparative political economy. He received his PhD in 2022 from the London School of Economics. His thesis focuses on the decline of Social Democratic parties in Western democracies. Max develops a unique organizational framework to analyze the process by which political parties make decisions. He employs this in the analysis of the British Labour party to demonstrate that attempts at ideological and strategic change were constrained by pre-existing organizational structures. Max’s other research projects are on political representation amidst increased inequality; intergenerational conflict; and the politics of place. His work has been published in Politics & Society and Governance.