The ASCL Research Programme for the years 2019-2024 is called ‘Strident Africa: Societal and Environmental Change in the Context of 50 Centuries of History’. It examines the dramatic changes taking place on the continent in terms of population growth, urbanization, the role of external actors and the…

Lamberto Zannier, Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), gave a lecture on ‘The OSCE, a bridge between East and West and a platform for dialogue on European security’

On 4 March 2024, the Local Public Sector Alliance (LPSA) held a meeting of its Working Group on Local Democracy and Inclusive Governance, in which theoretical ideas and experiences about local governance and decentralisation were discussed. Esteban Szmulewicz, PhD candidate at the Department of Constitutional…

Having encountered a series of shocks that pose an existential threat to our livelihoods, our societies have become increasingly polarized.

How does governing work today, and how does society handle pressing challenges in ways that are democratic, effective, fair, peaceful, and sustainable?

Mayke Kaag has been appointed Professor of the Anthropology of Politics and Governance in Africa at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (CADS) on behalf of the African Studies Centre Leiden (ASCL).

On 28 and 29 January 2020 the workshop ‘Law, Rights, and Governance in Africa. A look to the Future’ was held at Leiden Law School.

Natural resources often stretch across borders that separate modern nation states. This can create conflict and limit opportunities for regulated consumption of their goods and services, but also provide opportunities for joint multinational efforts that exceed single country capabilities.

Ester van der Voet received the International Society Award in Industrial Ecology. She is awarded this price for her outstanding contributions and leadership in the field of industrial ecology, and her tireless efforts to promote sustainability and resource management. The ceremony took place on the…

This coming June and July, excavations will continue at the Aguas Buenas archaeological site.

The Economics and Governance specialisation of the Master in Public Administration teaches you to formulate problem-solving approaches to concrete policy issues found at the intersection between economics and public administration, specifically focusing on welfare states and markets. This specialisation…

This article explores levels and patterns of legitimacy beliefs with respect to multistakeholder global governance at ICANN. From a large and systematic evidence base, Jongen & Scholte have found that ICANN has strong legitimacy underpinnings among its staff and board, as well as quite uniformly moderate-to-high…

How and why governments engage with civil society as well as how civil society organizes itself and exerts political influence constitute the key focus of the research programme Public Governance & Civil Society. As such, this research programme offers unique expertise within the field of public administration…

Voorafgaand aan de begrotingsonderhandelingen riep Marjolein Faber, Minister van Asiel en Migratie, officieel een asielcrisis uit. Is daarmee mogelijke wetgeving op komst? En gaat Brussel daarmee akkoord? Mark Klaassen, universitair docent bij het Europa Instituut, hierover aan het woord in Metro.

Call for Papers for the conference Relocating Governance in Asia: state and society in South- and Southeast Asia, c. 1800-2000, Leiden University, 22-24 January 2020.

Artificial intelligence could help make the work of public sector organisations, professionals, policy- and decision makers more effective, more efficient, and ideally could make it more rationalised and evidence-based.

Growing health inequalities, rising healthcare costs, an ageing population and a shortage of healthcare personnel are just a few of the many challenges healthcare faces, in the Netherlands and internationally. To tackle these challenges an interdisciplinary approach is required by combining knowledge…

Agriculture is among the most vulnerable sectors to climate change and poorer countries face the most severe difficulties. Coffee farmers in Central America, for instance, are facing multiple and mutually reinforcing crises, including price shocks, outbreaks of pests and diseases, migration, and farm…

Lecture

Political Scientist Gisela Hirschmann (Leiden University) asks how international organisations can be compelled to comply with respect human rights. She finds that this is done through ‘pluralist accountability’: external third parties such as courts, NGOs, or regional organisations holding international…

This edited volume suggests promising new avenues of research in analyzing coalition politics. Written by a group of leading scholars, the book clarifies a number of concepts too often taken for granted in the existing literature, performs theoretically-driven and methodologically novel comparative…

In this journal article, Dr. Joris Larik and Dr. Richard Ponzio put forward a broad-based pandemic recovery agenda that goes hand in hand with institutional reforms at the global level.

Emerging from the first wave relatively unscarred to an increase in infections. This research analyses the response from the Bulgarian government to Covid-19.

Leiden Asia Centres

On 15 February 2024, Alexandros Sarris defended the thesis 'International Law and Governance of the Arctic in an Era of Climate Change'. The doctoral research was supervised by Nico Schrijver and Freya Baetens.

Jan Aart Scholte, Professor Global Transformations and Governance Challenges, is a co-author of this book that offers the first full comparative study of citizen and elite legitimacy beliefs toward global governance.

The use of increasingly large and diverse datasets to guide urban climate action has implications for how, and by whom, local governments are held accountable.

The Politics and Governance department of the Institute of Public Administration focuses on the complex interaction between politics and governance. Our research explores contemporary issues such as the impact of global crises, populism, and polarisation at various levels of government.

This article by Honorata Mazepus and Florian van Leeuwen in the journal Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration and Institutions looks at how evaluations of authorities were influenced by four aspects of a governmental response to a hypothetical disaster.

As of 1 January 2024, Gerrard Boot, Professor of Employment Law, has been appointed to act as deputy justice in the Central Appeals Tribunal.

In the Governance of Sustainability programme students will learn to become a future ‘change agents’ who can develop and inform governance solutions to complex environmental sustainability challenges.

Are you eager to learn how to shape governance solutions to complex environmental challenges? Are you passionate about fostering a more inclusive, just and sustainable world? Then this master’s is the right fit for you.

The research group Cyber Security Governance will provide cutting-edge academic research in the domain of cyber, where modern technology interacts with traditional concepts such as governance, sovereignty, law-enforcement, international relations and conflict.

With both national and international companies operating in the market, the expansion of global platform capitalism raises concerns and critique. To counter a perceived erosion of local authority, various countries, particularly in Europe, have introduced anti-trust legislation against such BigTech…

Why, then, do governments choose to disclose intelligence and what factors shape how they do so?

This article investigates the sources of legitimacy in multistakeholderism as a major alternative approach to intergovernmental global governance.

The EUTAXGOV Chair will address the EU Standard of Tax Good Governance. This Standard has been introduced in 2008 by the ECOFIN Council with a view to tackle tax fraud and evasion by companies and individuals and as a pre-condition for third (non-EU) countries that receive EU development aid, and concluded…

The Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs

The research group Corporate Governance and Strategy investigates how, with whom and for whom a firm/corporation creates/captures value, in order to inform practice and rule makers about governance issues. By focusing on the dual character of the firm as an entity by itself but also consisting of stakeholders,…

In the track Governance of Crisis, you will be familiarized with the main body of knowledge on strategic crisis management.

There are three institutes at the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs:

Governance of Sustainability

Civil service systems are often targets of criticism globally. This article seeks to fill an evidence void about government performance and meritocracy

Leiden University has a long and outstanding tradition in the field of public international law.

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.