On 2 September 2021, Gert Jan Geertjes defended his thesis 'Staatsrecht en conventie in Nederland en het Verenigd Koninkrijk'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. L.F.M. Verhey and Prof. W.J.M. Voermans.

Across Europe, new welfare programs exemplify attempts to govern through community. This article asks how such governing through community is done in practice. Drawing on comparative insights from fieldwork with parenting support professionals and volunteers in Amsterdam, Milan, and Paris, we document…

This is an Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility project of Leiden University’s Faculty of Science with University of California.

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the Islamic State's use of images taken by drones, drawing on a dataset of ISIS propaganda images from October 2016 to December 2018.

On 17 April, Evert-Jan Govaers defended the thesis 'Ministers of State. Unknown and desired; from stage to the wings?'.The doctoral research was supervised by Wim Voermans.

The State & Society network critically interrogates the assumption that state and society are a priori conceptual and empirical objects.

In this project of the Center for Public Values & Ethics (CPVE) ongoing research is conducted on the history of advice to Dutch central government by so-called State committees from 1814 to 2014. State committees have been installed by Dutch central government since 1814 to provide expert advice, research…

This collection of essays is the first to compare the emergence and development of these different types of regional identities.

Managing scarcity to serve the public interest is a classic government task. An important way to execute this task is by allocating individual rights that are only available in limited quantities, such as CO2 emission allowances, gambling licences, subsidies, radio frequencies, public contracts and…

The World of a Mid-Eighth-Century Egyptian Official

This is an Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility project of Leiden University Medical Center with Boston Children’s Hospital in the USA.

State Building Through Life Stories: Incorporating Local Perspectives

The Europa Instituut is pleased to announce that on 21 November 2016 a new handbook “EU State Aids” (31 Chapters, 1500 pages) was published.

How can we implement the technique of pharmacological resting-state fMRI to improve the diagnosis of dementia?

The nation-state is not so old as we are often told, nor has it come to be quite so naturally. Getting this history right means telling a different story about where our international political order has come from—which in turn points the way to an alternative future.

Bones contain information about people’s lives such as where they came from, their age at death and which diseases they suffered from. Researchers can deduce a lot from them about a person’s life and about human evolution. This generates leads that could help solve present-day problems, such as how…

This edited volume by Jeff Fynn-Paul pushes forward the debate on the role of entrepreneurs in making war and building states in Europe and the Ottoman Empire.

How do early modern states organize effective rule in difficult conditions? EMStaD YEMEN focuses on a country that due to its geographical, religious and social complexities is now considered a failed state – Yemen.

This study examines how European state administrations responded to transboundary crises over the past 30 years and the extent of their successful adaptation.

An international comparative study of the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Promotor: W.Th.F. den Hollander Co-Promotor: F.M. Spieksma

In this article, Samir Negash, PhD candidate at the Institute of Public Administratation, discusses the discrepancy in European countries between the measured impact of immigration on the welfare state and how this impact is perceived by citizens.

On 21 September 2022 Arfiansyah successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

Recent years have seen a vibrant scholarship on health policy and politics. While much is now known about changes to health policies and institutions over time, this study finds that scholarship still lacks research on the linkages between health policies and health outcomes (Marmor & Wendt, 2012).…

In the wake of controversial disclosures of classified government information by WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden, questions about the democratic status of secret uses of political power are rarely far from the headlines. Despite an increase in initiatives aimed at enhancing government transparency – such…

This dissertations studies state-society relations in 1930s Turkey, focusing on the anti-veiling campaigns in the mid-1930s and aiming to understand the ways in which the Kemalist policies were received, interpreted, negotiated, compromised and/or resisted by various actors in the provinces.

All players on the world stage operate strategically in order to safeguard their interests. Political scientists at Leiden University cast light on this volatile interplay of forces. Their research helps voters, NGOs, governments and international organizations make smart choices in this complex and…

After decades in which autocracies were marginalised in most IOs, the rise of China, Russia’s increasingly autocratic turn, and the rising importance of powers such as hybrid regimes have produced a new reality in which various non-liberal states are increasingly present and assertive in IOs. The strategies,…

Latif Fauzi defended his thesis on 18 May 2021.

Reconfigurations of Practice, Community and Authority in Contemporary Aceh

In this article, the authors analyse two major factors that deepen informality, namely multipolar geopolitics and the rise of non-state actors.

Politically speaking, the Frisian coastal area constitutes a special case in late medieval Europe since it was not subject to an overlord as it withstood feudalization in the 13th century. Its many sub regions, which were dominated by elites of small noblemen and freeholders, long time succeeded in…

State fragility and conflict continue to be among the most enduring development challenges of the 21st century. The consequences of fragility and conflict on individuals, States and the international community are profound. At the individual level, an estimated 2 billion people or a quarter of the world's…

Leiden researchers study the extent to which Asian citizens can invoke the rights that they have on paper. This knowledge helps them advise the different levels of government and NGOs on how to improve the lot of poor citizens in particular.

Antoaneta Dimitrova, Professor Comparative Governance at Leiden University, Honorata Mazepus, Assistant professor at Leiden University and Dimiter Toshkov, Associate Professor at Leiden University, together with three other authors researched which aspects of state capacity might contribute to opening…

During the 1980s and early 2000s, authors like Alex Schmid and Andrew Silke demonstrated the paucity of first-hand insights being used to study terrorism and the consequences this had for the reliability of the findings beings presented. But to what extent have these issues endured?

In this article, Kuipers and Timmermans analyze the first lady's relationship with policy problems in the period 1945-2013.

PhD defence

Sophie Vériter explores a small state’s impact on EU security governance, a hard challenge means against big states in this policy area.

A discourse on international cyber norms has emerged ever since the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security (UN GGE) recommended eleven norms on responsible state behaviour in cyberspace.

On 16 June 2020, Andrea Varga defended her thesis 'Establishing State Responsibility in the Absence of Effective Government'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. N.J. Schrijver and Prof. F. Baetens (University of Oslo).

Yi-Wen Cheng defended her thesis on 28 May 2015

On 27 June 2019, Vid Prislan defended his thesis 'Domestic Courts in Investor-State Arbitration: Partners, Suspects, Competitors'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. N.J. Schrijver.

This monograph, written by dr. Dennie Oude Nijhuis and published by Cambridge University Press, discusses the postwar development of the welfare state.

State utilization of 'hukum adat' and its implication for the Indonesian rule of law

Organisations such as the EU are of enormous benefit to the member states, but the inhabitants of the member states are often unaware of this. Leiden researchers investigate whether international organisations such as the EU or ASEAN are able to influence global politics.

This book offers novel perspectives on the national and international dimensions of the post-war welfare state in Western Europe and North America.

Slavoj Žižek is one of the most prominent public intellectuals of the left. His central claim holds that “today, it is more crucial than ever to continue to question the very foundations of capitalism as a global system”.