Individual Talks: Randal Smith

Randal Smith

Randal Smith took his PhD in African History at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He has been a freelance political and economic analyst writing for the Economist Intelligence Unit and Oxford Analytica.


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Randal works for the Commonwealth Local Government Forum as research and policy adviser.

His research interests concern democracy and more specifically the role of local democracy and local government in the health of the state and its citizens. This includes a number of questions he would welcome answers to: is there any country that has a healthy local democracy within an UNhealthy national system of governance? Does effective local democracy deliver more for its citizens more effectively and more efficiently? Does Amartya Sen's thesis about democracy apply equally to local democracy?

Randal is also political involved in the UK at the local government level.

Other interests include listening to a wide range of music and hiking.

Randal is Canadian with a diverse background including his mother who grew up in Japan and his father who is Bahamian. He currently lives in the UK with his wife Keiko, from Japan.