Professor Kees Waaldijk presented the report on the LawsAndFamilies Database to Pearl Dykstra, member of the High Level Group of Scientific Advisors of the European Commission on 25 April. This comparative study shows that in European countries same-sex partners are increasingly gaining equal rights.…

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…

Our selection and placement procedure starts with your application and ends with—hopefully—an invitation to you to enrol as an IRO student. This page tells you all you need to know about the steps to be taken in between.

Met de val van Balkenende IV laait de discussie over het functioneren van politieke partijen binnen ons democratisch bestel weer op. Opgeblazen ego’s, overambitieuze politici en partijpolitieke machtspelletjes zouden echte democratie in de weg staan. Maar die discussie is niet nieuw.

The Institute of Political Science has a multi-dimensional research programme that promotes the unity of the institute as an intellectual community rooted in the social sciences and especially political science, while enabling overlapping groups of colleagues to develop particular research agendas within…

The research conducted is centred around three themes. Within the different themes a multi-level approach is used, focussing on issues at the level of the health care system, the level of organizations and networks of organizations and at professionals within organisations.

In the master’s programme in Archaeology, you can follow courses on the archaeology of Europe, deepening your understanding of the continent’s long history.

Check your application deadlines here.

The Leiden University Political Science bachelor’s programme enjoys a high popularity. To assure the quality of education, the number of students it admits is limited. This is known as a 'numerus fixus'. If there are more applications than this ‘numerus fixus’, a selection and placement procedure will…

Tim Koopmans is one of the great minds in the history of Dutch and European legal scholarship. He taught law as a professor in Leiden and other universities, among which Ghent, Cambridge, Utrecht. He practiced it as a judge in the European Court of Justice and Advocate-General in the Dutch Supreme Court,…

From 1 to 2 June 2017 Leiden University hosts the annual 24-hour Political Science Conference (‘Politicologenetmaal’). This event will bring together political scientists and practitioners from Flanders and The Netherlands, who will participate in several workshops to discuss subjects like elections,…

The nominees for the IRO Thesis Prize 2024 and the Prof. Dr. J.Th.J. van den Berg-prijs 2024. Who authored the best thesis in Leiden University’s bachelor’s programme in Political Science?

Recently, Hans-Martien ten Napel was in the news on the above subject several times.

82 years ago Queen Wilhelmina fled to England. Henk te Velde tells about her on the Australian radio show 'Nightlife'.

On 3 December 2020 (at 14.30) Janna Everaert will defend her dissertation "Macht in de metropool. Politieke elitevorming tijdens de demografische en economische bloeifase van Antwerpen (ca. 1400-1550)". To attend this event please send an email to janna.everaert@vub.be.

How does the Chinese government communicate with its citizens? Yuxi Nie obtained her PhD with her thesis on communication strategies of the Chinese state media agency Xinhua. She discovered that on social media, Xinhua communicated in different ways, depending on the target group.

Political games have existed throughout history, but what is the role of 'play' in the way the American political world has developed? University lecturer Sara Polak has received an ERC Starting Grant to investigate this.

All students receiving their bachelor diploma in Political Science last week had a reason or two to celebrate. Two of them especially so: they won the annual award for the best thesis in the International Relations and Organisations and the Politicologie/Internationale Politiek programmes. Congratulations,…

Who authored the best theses in Leiden University's Political Science BSc programmes?

Prof. em. Wim Blockmans (Leiden University) has given an interview to ‘De Nieuwe Wereld’ (in Dutch). He talks about his latest book 'Medezeggenschap. Politieke participatie in Europa vóór 1800'. Take also a look at the YouTube channel of this Dutch philosophy collective as other videos feature medievalists…

Overview of Leiden publications on Central Asia. For additional publications dedicated to a single country, please go to individual pages of the researchers, which you can access through the Researchers page.

The Leiden Leadership Centre is an interdisciplinary network organisation branching out from its place within the Institute of Public Administration, Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs (Leiden University in The Hague). The LLC functions as a platform by connecting students, practitioners, and…

The center studies the many ways in which issues of law and justice are dealt with in art and literature with a focus on liminal issues and cases. These are issues and cases where law comes to the limits of what it is capable of dealing with and art and literature explore the implications of what is…

On Friday, June 12th, the Europa Institute held its annual PhD Day.

The Leiden Research Profile Area Political Legitimacy organizes a public symposium on the 12th of May 2016 on the legitimacy and future of the Dutch Senate.

Researchers Wim van Noort, Sandra Groeneveld, Marieke van der Hoek, Jelmer Schalk en Joris van der Voet published a book on public organizations.

On 22 February 2017 political scientist Tim Mickler (Leiden University) defended his dissertation on the structure, composition, and working of parliamentary committees. He was awarded the exceptional predicate 'cum laude'.

Great news: the MOOC

Dit jaar begon het project 'Monarchy in Turmoil'. Dit project bracht twee nieuwe onderzoekers naar het Instituut voor Geschiedenis: PhD-kandidaat Quinten Somsen en postdoc Joost Welten. Hieronder stellen zij zich voor en lichten zij hun project toe.

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?

The nominees for the Prof. Dr. J.Th.J. van den Berg-prijs 2022 and the IRO Thesis Prize 2022. Who wrote the best bachelor thesis in Political Science?

Pandemics, terrorist attacks, environmental disasters... These are real threats, which we cannot ignore. In fact: we need to prepare better for the large-scale crises of the future. Preferably in a way that suits our lifestyle and respects our social values. Over the next ten years, an interdisciplinary…

For the first time in the history of the Van den Berg prize, there are two winners: the ‘traditional’ one for the best thesis by a student in the Dutch bachelor’s programmes in Political Science, and, as of 2020, one for a graduate from the International Relations and Organisations (IRO) specialisation.…

How do democracies develop? The Institute for History is devoting a three-day conference to this question.

Wout Broekema is shortlisted for the Els Witte Prize 2019, an award for best Doctoral dissertation in political science. The prize is instated by the Nederlandse Kring voor de wetenschap der Politiek (NKWP).

The House of Representatives in the Netherlands has requested advice from the Council of State about combining membership of the House of Representatives with holding a post in the cabinet. Geerten Boogaard sees this as a sign that the Netherlands is moving towards a constitutional court.

The Belgian elections are over. Now it is up to the formateur to form a cabinet, but that is difficult. Fauke Deceuninck, program leader of Politics and Governance at the Center for Professional Learning, explains to Speechmakers why that is.

What is the best electoral system for a democracy? First place at the Leiden University Thesis Awards 2021 is for those who have added a cleverly substantiated, personal vision to this socially relevant theme. ' This is what Annetje Ottow, chairman of the executive board and board member of the Leiden…

Door recente cyberaanvallen op instituties binnen en buiten Europa groeit het vermoeden steeds sterker dat achter de aanvallen wellicht een politieke motivatie schuilt. Jelle van Buuren van het Institute of Governance and Global Affairs (ISGA) verscheen in het NRC om te bespreken of er sprake kan zijn…

Since the decentralizations in the social domain in 2015, nearly all Dutch municipalities use district teams to organize care. However, the management, organization and composition of these district teams vary considerably between municipalities: each municipality tries to reinvent the wheel by itself.…

In de maanden maart, april en mei organiseerde het programma Transparantie in Informatie, van de ministeries van Economische Zaken en Klimaat (EZK) en Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit (LNV), gesprekken over de veranderopgave naar een Open Departement. De sessies hadden als doel om een eerlijk en…

Over 1600 pupils from primary schools in Leiden and The Hague were taught by a professor of Leiden University on the 444th anniversary of our university. Three professors from the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs, visited several classes of group 7 in The Hague.

In 2023, many of our students and staff won great prizes and secured important research grants.

The unemployment replacement rate data set, assembled by Olaf Van Vliet & Koen Caminada (version 1, January 2012), provides data on unemployment benefit schemes in 34 welfare states from the 1970s until 2009. The current data set includes all 27 member states of the European Union and 7 non-EU OECD…

University ceremony

The soya sauce in our kitchen cabinets is not a recent acquisition. This sauce is an important element in a long history of exchange between Asia and Europe. This is what Anne Gerritsen claims in her inaugural lecture for the Kikkoman Chair on Friday 12 December.

Recently three Public Administration students of Leiden University gave a sturdy advice to the Tax Authorities about the effects of the reorganization, at the invitation of the Ministry of Finance.

The formation of a new government is in full swing in the Netherlands. Or more accurately, it is in full deadlock. As a result, the possibility of a minority government is being discussed. Would that be a good idea?

2021, again, sees a rich harvest of bachelor theses in Political Science. Students have been tackling fascinating subjects—ranging from European solidarity in the COVID-19 crisis to the representation of women in democratically elected parliaments—and crowning their research projects with interesting,…

For too long the Dutch collective memory has judged the Jewish Council too harshly. This perspective needs to be adjusted, Bart van der Boom argues in his new book ‘De politiek van het kleinste kwaad’ (lit. ‘The Politics of the Lesser Evil’).