This book systematically evaluates the empirical evidence for legitimacy decline in established democracies, the explanatory power of theories of legitimacy decline, and promises new routes in investigating and assessing political legitimacy.

New ministers, new state secretaries and new members of parliament. Around the time of the elections, we often talk about the new faces, but there are also many politicians who leave during this period, sometimes out of necessity. How do you say goodbye to a political career? Henk te Velde, professor…

This study employs a comparative perspective to identify generic and specific qualities of petitions and petitioning. It charts the chronological development of petitioning practices over centuries. The interdisciplinary approaches provide range of conceptual and methodological expertise for reade…

Many people wish for political transparency in The Hague. However, political philosopher Dorota Mokrosinska argues in an article in the Dutch newspaper Trouw that there are certain advantages to political secrecy. She states that politicians are better at compromising with one another behind closed…

Corinna Jentzsch and Wouter Veenendaal, two political scientists affiliated with Leiden University’s Institute of Political Science, have been awarded a NWO ‘Veni’-grant. This grant brings them official recognition as ‘young outstanding researchers’, as well as financial support for conducting independent…

Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) in Leiden is a unique interdisciplinary master’s programme, considering topics of freedom, justice and citizenship in the 21st century. Watch this video to learn more about the programme!

Leiden University’s Political Science and International Studies programmes continue to enjoy a solid academic reputation. In the 2016 QS World University Rankings, Leiden is in the top 25 of the most esteemed institutes worldwide. Within the Netherlands, Leiden has retained the first position.

Political scientist Nicholas Vrousalis (Leiden University) reviews the recent literature on exploitation. He istinguishes between three main species of exploitation theory: (a) teleology-based (including harm and mutual benefit) accounts, (b) respect-based (including mere means, force, rights, and fairness)…

The controversial Disciplinary Chamber of the Polish Supreme Court is one of many other judiciary reforms which the PiS, the Polish nationalist ruling party, carried out since 2015. The Disciplinary Chamber allows for judges to be fined, degraded and discharged. Von der Leyen expects the highest European…

The nominees for the IRO thesis prize 2021 and for the Prof. Dr. J.Th.J. van den Berg prize 2021. Who wrote the best Political Science bachelor’s theses?

Furious protesters in Budapest and other Hungarian cities demand the departure of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The reason for the large-scale protests is the adaptation of the labor law, especially lucrative for German companies and investors, by the Hungarian prime minister.

Conference

Chaider Bamualim defended his thesis on 9 September 2015

This volume offers an innovative analysis of Roman political culture in Italy from the first to the sixth century AD on the basis of seven case studies.

Philosophy has an important contribution to make to society, says Professor of Practical Philosophy Glen Newey. You need people who can think clearly, certainly in positions of power and authority. Newey stresses that “there will always be a place for philosophy”. An introduction to the practically…

How can historical archive sources by non-elite groups help us understand modern-day politics in South Asia? This is one of the main themes of Prof. Nira Wickramasinghe’s inaugural lecture on 14 March.

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…

Political scientist Tom Louwerse (Leiden University) and a team of international researchers have been awarded a NWO ORA grant. They are going to investigate political representation in an era in which voter alignment with political parties is steadily decreasing.

This paper sheds light on how better monetary-fiscal coordination can be expected to play out across very different political-economic contexts.

Grabovski spoke in various media on the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January 2022.

No evidence found that increasing migration leads to an increase in politically and ideologically motivated criminality. Migration flows have, however resulted in increased polarisation in the Netherlands.

The Patriot behind the pot tells the story of pottery, people and politics in the Netherlands during a time of great revolutions -revolutions both in a political and industrial sense.

The predication of the effect (efficiency and toxicity) of a drug in a patient is very important in (i) clinical decision support and (ii) the development of novel drug treatments.

The chief aim of this study is to explore how classical Persian poetry and the Persian mysticism that is interwoven with the poetry have been used in the new politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran, especially during the Iran-Iraq war.

Although it is already certain that Vladimir Putin will win the Russian presidential election on 18 March, it is still significant for him, argues Russian expert André Gerrits. ‘The support of the people reinforces Putin's position of power.’

Will the association agreement between the EU and Ukraine lead to a new ‘Cold War’ between Russia and the West? That was one of the questions posed to the expert panel which discussed the referendum on the EU-Ukraine association agreement. While many people are still unsure what this referendum is really…

Two researchers from the Institute of Political Science were recently awarded prizes. Claire Vergerio received the Francesco Guicciardini Prize for her book on the historical origins of the primacy of the state in international law ('best book in the historical international relations category'). In…

The starting hypothesis of the project is that secrecy is not always inimical to democratic governance as conventional wisdom has it.

It has been crackling within the European People's Party (EPP) for months, but is it also going to explode? Michiel Luining, lecturer at the Institute of Public Administration at Leiden University, gives an explanation of the suspension of Fidesz, the party of the Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán,…