David McKay is Professor of Government at the University of Essex. He is the author of numerous books and articles on American and comparative politics, most recently "Designing Europe: Comparative Lessons from the Federal Experience" (2001, winner of the Political Studies Association WJM MacKenzie prize for the best book published in 2001). He is the co-author of "The New British Politics" (2004). David McKay has been a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Cornell and California.