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Concept
David Beetham
Summary
David Beetham (1938 – 5 July 2022) was a social theorist who made extensive contributions in the fields of democracy and human rights (including in his approach to the role of not only social but also economic rights) who was Professor of Politics at the University of Leeds.
Beetham was born in Keighley in the West Riding of Yorkshire and grew up in Birkenhead, then in Cheshire. He was the second of three sons of Tom Beetham, a Methodist minister, and his wife Elain (nee Wade). He attended Kingswood School in Bath and gained a scholarship to study at Merton College, Oxford.
Beetham read Greats at Merton. After a short period preparing to be a Methodist minister, he turned to the social sciences, gaining a PhD at the University of Manchester.
He stood for the Labour Party in the 1970 General Election.
Beetham became a lecturer in the Philosophy Department at Manchester, before transferring to the Department of Government where he became a Senior Lecturer. In March 1980 he was appointed Professor of Politics and Head of the Department of Politics at the University of Leeds in succession to Ralph Miliband. He retired from Leeds as Emeritus Professor in December 2001 following a period of ill-health.
He was a consultant on democracy to the Council of Europe, the Inter-Parliamentary Union and UNESCO. His study Introducing Democracy, 80 Questions and Answers (jointly authored with Professor Kevin Boyle of the University of Essex) was commissioned by UNESCO and published world-wide in many languages. Closer to home, he joined Democratic Audit at the University of Essex in 1992 where he became associate editor, working closely with Director Stuart Weir. Beetham devised a methodology for assessing democracy which was pioneered by the Democratic Audit in the UK and was developed for wider use across the world. Beetham also sat on the editorial board of the academic journal Representation.
Beetham was a major contributor as Associate Director of the UK Democratic Audit, based at the London School of Economics.
Official source
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