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This programme video is presented in Dutch

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Political scientists Tom Louwerse, Simon Otjes & Cynthia van Vonno introduce the Dutch Parliamentary Behaviour Dataset, a record of parliamentary (voting) behaviour in the Dutch Tweede Kamer (Second Chamber, House of Representatives) since 1945.

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How many written parliamentary questions does each party put to each minister? Political scientists Simon Otjes (University of Groningen) and Tom Louwerse (Leiden University) studied the practice in Dutch parliament and found that parties use parliamentary questions strategically as part of their ‘permanent…

Are you thinking about studying Management van de Publieke Sector: Politiek, Beleid en Management? Learn more and watch thevideos. Please note that this programme is taught in Dutch.

Beyond the immediately visible plenum, parliaments are highly complex institutions. They work through various venues in which decisions are prepared or even taken. The two main institutions in this regard are parliamentary party groups, which comprise legislators who are elected under the same party…

Akbik and Diessner expand the classic typology of police-patrol and fire-alarm oversight with two new categories: planning bureaus and ambulance chasers.

This presentation is presented in Dutch

Book project on how European policy is made and implemented, with a focus on how that process can be understood and lead to policy change.

How do parliamentarians secure their political future? Are their activities in the legislature connected to their place on the candidate list from one election to the next? Political scientists Tom Louwerse and Cynthia van Vonno examine the Dutch case. Their main finding is that speaking in the plenary…

This dissertation contains the further development of a method for linguistic-stylistic research, which provides a systematic means to interpret global impressions of a text through choices in formulation at word- and sentence level.

The parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, scheduled for March 2017, are likely to result in a fragmented parliament and a complicated coalition formation process, according to Dutch political scientist Hans Vollaard (Leiden University).

MPs in the Netherlands are first and foremost motivated by their direct environment, i.e. the parliamentary and partisan institutions.

The Dutch Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV) recently published its report ‘The war in Ukraine: A geopolitical shock to the system’. On 7 July 2022, the Dutch House of Representatives had asked the Advisory Council to provide an expedited report on the consequences of the war for Dutch…

Cynthia van Vonno, political scientist at Leiden University, explains why individual MPs vote according to the party group line.

Geert Wilders’ PVV Party believes that Islam is a totalitarian ideology and not a religion, and thus Muslims are not equally entitled to the same freedom of religion or belief as other believers. This view is incompatible with liberal democracy, according to Hans-Martien ten Napel.

Elina Zorina presented her work-in-progress on “Distinctiveness in the Parliamentary Arena: Consequences for Vote Choice” during the GTGC lunch seminar on the 1st of May. Please find the abstract below:

Populist opposition parties are less likely to engage in policy-making behaviour (participating in or directly influencing legislative production) and somewhat more likely to engage in scrutiny behaviour (monitoring and criticising government actions).

How to explain variation in the extent to which parliamentary voting behaviour follows the government–opposition divide? Party Politics article by Tom Louwerse et al.

The leading textbook on governance and politics in the Netherlands. The authors offer a clear and comprehensive account and have revised the text to provide full coverage of recent important developments.

‘Internationale Politiek’ is a specialisation in the BSc programme in Political Sciences. It combinEs the core political science subjects with the study of international and global processes and institutions. This specialisation is partically taught in Dutch and based in Leiden.

On 12 April 2022 Alok Oak successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

Governments in parliamentary democracies have limited time in office to fulfill their policy agendas. So, how do they optimise the timing of legislative bills to assure their passage and avoid lengthy parliamentary scrutiny? This question is especially puzzling under coalition governments, in which…

Combine the analytical tools of the Political Science discipline with an in-depth study of current politics in the Netherlands.

Jan de Vetten brengt zijn promotieonderzoek ook uit in boekvorm. ‘In de ban van goed en fout’ beschrijft voor het eerst - op basis van archiefonderzoek en interviews - op samenhangende wijze de bestrijding van de CP en CD, en ook de reactie daarop van die partijen. Waarom werden ze zo fel werden bestreden?…

China wordt steeds assertiever in zijn relaties met andere landen, maar achter dit beeld gaat een opmerkelijk diverse maatschappij en politieke realiteit schuil die tal van aanknopingspunten biedt voor samenwerking en verdere integratie van China in de wereld. In China een gids voor de 21e eeuw past…

The main objectives of this project are to measure and explain government-opposition distinctiveness and to study its consequences for democratic legitimacy and vote choice.

The research project ‘The History of National Security, 1945-present', is funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), the Campus The Hague/Leiden University and the Netherlands Institute for Military History (NIMH). The project will run until the summer of 2013, when we hope…

On 4 March 2021, Michiel Spanjers defended his thesis 'Belastingbudget'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. J.P. Boer and Prof. H. Vording.

Parliaments in democratic systems serve as the people’s representatives, legislators and overseers of the executive. They have the power to define the framework in which the executive can act and must report about its action. For parliaments to fulfil their roles, though, they depend on access to information.…

BSc degrees: ‘Political Science’, ‘International Relations and Organisations’. MSc degree: Political Science, with specialisations ‘International Organisation’; ‘Dutch Politics; ‘Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict, and Development’; ‘International Politics’; ‘Political Legitimacy and Justice’; ‘Democracy…

Anchrit Wille, Associate Professor at Leiden University's Institute of Public Administration, wrote together with Mark Bovens, Professor of Public Administration at the Utrecht University School of Governance the book“Diploma Democracy”. The Economist wrote a review “This fascinating book shows that…

Political scientist Tim Mickler (Leiden University) receives a grant from The Dutch Research Council (NWO) for his quantitative research into post-parliamentary positions of parliamentarians. The grant is a result of the SGW Open Competition XS, with the aim of stimulating innovative scientific rese…

Some MPs are very active, while others are not. The number of proposals and questions that MPs in the Netherlands put forward is determined in part by the level of activity of their fellow committee members rather than by electoral incentive, which is the case in other countries.

Marietje Beemsterboer defended her thesis on 12 June 2018 (in Dutch)

With the exodus of departing parliamentarians, which seems to have gained momentum this summer, the loss of experience in parliament after the upcoming general election in the Netherlands will be considerable. A cause for concern according to Wim van De Camp, former CDA MP, and Wim Voermans, Professor…