Patrick Leslie is a senior lecturer in the Department of Policy and Governance at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University.

He is interested in how political institutions shape policy outcomes, with a focus on governance, legislative and judicial behaviour, and representation. He has led commissioned policy research for federal and territory agencies, and on externally funded grants including as principal investigator on a UK Economic and Social Research Council project.

His work has appeared in several journals, including the Journal of Politics and the American Political Science Review. He serves on the editorial board of the Australian Journal of Political Science and was a guest editor of a special issue on policy success and failure in the Australian Journal of Public Administration.