Previously he was the Graham Wallas chair of Political Science and the co-director of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics.
[12] Since his first book was published in 1980 (Introduction to Critical Theory), David Held pursued a multilevel inquiry into the nature and changing form of national and international politics.
Held examined the question of whether the nation state alone, as typically assumed by political theory, can be the sole home of democracy, accountability and the rule of law.
[citation needed] The third element of Held's work was to explore how and in what ways one can move beyond the crises and dilemmas of politics and governance in the contemporary world.
In pursuing this multilevel approach Held saw himself working within the classic tradition of political theory which has always been concerned with how to characterize the world in which we live, how to develop and reach normative goals such as liberty, democracy and social justice, and how to move from where we are to where we might like to be.
He offered a contribution to a pressing dialogue of our times: how to resolve collective action problems, nationally and globally, through institutions and governance arrangements that enhance democracy, social justice and the participation of all citizens in a democratic public life.