Is criminal disenfranchisement compatible with a democratic political order? This article considers this question in light of a recently developed view that criminal disenfranchisement is justified because it expresses our commitment to democratic values.

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 researchers examine the Council of the European Union's voting behaviour between 2010 and 2021 and the impact of different independent variables.

Voting Advice Applications represent popular election campaign tools in many countries, enabling voters to discover which party or candidate provides the best match with their political preferences. Political scientists Martin Rosema (University of Twente) and Tom Louwerse (Leiden University) examine…

Many people are wondering whether to vote strategically or not in the parliamentary elections on Wednesday. This raises at least three important questions: what is strategic voting, how do you know if you are a strategic voter yourself, and what do you need to do to use your strategic vote well?

Political scientists Marijn Nagtzaam (Leiden University) and Patrick van Erkel (University of Antwerp) investigate how electoral rules affect intra party preference voting. Focusing on the effect of two specific rules—the option to cast a list vote and on a single versus multiple preference vote—and…

This article presents a new dyadic approach to studying voting behaviour in the Council of the European Union.

This paper describes the development process of voting behavior in Chile; particularly the relationship between the class voting theory and the theory of cultural post-materialist vote is investigated. This research deals with Chile as a case study, a developing country with a relatively stable democracy…

To what extent can contingent, formative feedback in lectures, facilitated by web-based ICT, increase students’ self-efficacy and (academic, behavioral, and cognitive) engagement? And how are self-efficacy and engagement influencing students’ performance and course evaluations?

In this article, Meier & Nadler suggest that while non-citizen enfranchisement boosts participation across all citizens, citizens with immigration backgrounds are more reactive to the NCV rights in terms of higher turnout. In this way, the paper adds a critical nuance to individual-based explanations…

This book compares the policies of Australia and Italy towards boat people who have arrived in the two countries since the early 1990s.

The midterm elections in the United States will be a vote of (no) confidence in president Trump and his divisive leadership style, says Brendan Carroll, assistant professor Public Administration. In this blog he explains why voter turnout can be a decisive factor.

Honorata Mazepus, Assisstant Professor at Leiden University, researched the topic of Madisonian Judgments in Five Cultures, together with three other authors.

If you end up in prison somewhere in the world, the chances are you won’t be allowed to vote. If it were up to researchers Tom Theuns and Andrei Poama, rather than disenfranchise felons, we would oblige them to vote. That would be a better way to express democratic values.

Who will be our Discoverer of the year 2017? Which one of these brilliant researchers deserves this prize for their efforts according to you? As of now, you can cast your vote.

Which brilliant scientist will be our Discoverer of the Year 2019? Will it be a physicist, biologist, drug discoverer or an astronomer? Or an environmental scientist, a mathematician, chemist or computer scientist? As of now, you can cast your vote.

This week, from the 9th until the 13th of May, the university elections will take place. As a member of the university staff, you may vote on the parties of staff representatives.

How do people vote? How rational are voting choices? How much do external factor weigh in? In this article social scientis provide some background.

Scott Waitukaitus has been nominated by LION to be Discoverer of the Year 2017. Cast your vote now!

Suzan Verberne is nominated by the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) to be granted the C.J. Kok Public Award, also known as the award for the ‘Discoverer of the Year’.

In a lawsuit concerning the upcoming Dutch elections, the Partij voor de Dieren (Party for the Animals) is claiming that everyone should be able to cast a postal vote. Is it a form of discrimination that everyone above the age of 70 is allowed to cast their vote by post, but people who are younger and…

What will it be like to study at Leiden University in 2075? Ten surprising, artistic uni-visions could be brought to life. It’s up to you to vote for your favourite.

Politicians in Barcelona are preparing for a new political battle. Nationalists fighting for Catalan independence have announced that they will organize a referendum this autumn, just as they did in 2014. Other parties claim that it will lead to new court cases because the referendum is unconstituti…

In 1970, compulsory voting was abolished in the Netherlands. It wasn’t functioning at the time, and it was abolished for practical and ideological reasons, says Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, on a BNNVARA podcast.

Which brilliant scientist will be our Discoverer of the year 2018? Will it be a physicist, biologist, drug discoverer or an astronomer? Or an environmental scientist, a mathematician, chemist or computer scientist? As of now, you can cast your vote.

In November, the Dutch will elect a new parliament. Not all eligible citizens will go out and vote, however. How can this be explained, and how big of a problem is it? International research into voter turnout can shed new light on this issue – and offer possible solutions.

They both want to be a youth delegate at the United Nations. Aoife Fleming, an International Studies student, wants to represent young people in Sustainable Development and Tugba Kilinc wants to represent young people in Human Rights and Security. Vote now!

Who wouldn’t want their own episode of Het Klokhuis? Researchers Milica Nikolic and Chris Riddell are in the running for the Klokhuis Wetenschapsprijs, which aims to introduce a broad and young audience to scientific research in the Netherlands.

Leiden physicist Anne Meeussen has been nominated for the title of New Scientist Science Talent. She will be up against 14 young scientists from other Dutch and Belgian universities. The polls are already open!

The New Scientist magazine has selected two young Leiden scientists for its Top 25 Young Talents in the Netherlands and Flanders: historian Karwan Fatah-Black and neuropsychologist Mariska Kret. Who will be the winner? You can vote for one of them!

The tally now stands at a 19th no-confidence motion in the Rutte IV cabinet, though it is just one year old. All Rutte cabinets combined have faced more no-confidence motions in the past 12 years than the entire parliamentary history before it. The score is 1.5 per month, 87 in total as of 2010 which…

The University's childcare centre, de Kattekop, has been awarded the 2017 Regional Award by South Holland. In an independent survey, parents gave the centre an exceptional score of 9.4,.

The level of congruence between parties and their voters can vary greatly from one policy issue to another, which raises questions regarding the effectiveness of political representation. We seek to explain variation in party–voter congruence across issues and parties.

Poama and Theuns co-wrote an opinion piece on why voting in prison should be mandatory worldwide. It appeared on National Interest's website on February 12.

In Dutch newspaper NRC, Pieter Omtzigt says he finds it 'unconstitutional' that he has no right to vote in committee meetings. Omtzigt believes he is as much a Member of Parliament as other MPs. However, since 2017, a breakaway group is no longer entitled to a proportional share of staff support and…

Between 6 and 9 June, you’ll be able to vote in the European elections. But what can you expect from these elections? What are the most important topics on the European agenda? And why should you even vote? Students from the European Law master’s specialisation explain.

The University elections are taking place from 15 to 19 May. It's your chance to vote for who you think will best represent your interests in the Humanities Faculty Council. Meet the student parties!

Christa Tobler writes an extensive article on voting rights for different groups for the annual congress of the

The National Multiple Sclerosis Foundation need your vote for the best employer. This Award is based on the research project MS@Work from psychologists of the Health, Medical and Neuropsychology unit in Leiden. Last chance for voting on Thursday 14 November.

Neele Boelens is a board member at DWARS, the youth organisation of political party GroenLinks. In addition, she is studying towards two degrees at Leiden University: Linguistics and Public Administration. A busy year, especially with the upcoming elections.

On 7 February 2021, Christa Tobler appeared on the BBC Wales radio programme 'Sunday Supplement' (a political and current affairs programme), entitled 'Covid, homelessness and votes for women'. The 50th anniversary of Swiss women's suffrage at the federal level, is commemorated on 7 February 2021.

On September 12th, the faculty of Governance and Global Affairs organized a lecture and debate together with the organization Prinsjesfestival. The event was about 100 years of universal rights to vote, specifically women’s rights to vote.

Many students, members of staff and alumni at Leiden University are active in politics, including as candidates in the local elections on 21 March.

Britain's biggest archaeology magazine has announced the nominees Book of the Year award and this time one of our own has been nominated!

With only a month until the 2020 United States elections, William Michael Schmidli, University Lecturer of American history, reflects on the latest developments. President Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis seems apt for the nation too, he argues.

The AI chatbot ChatGPT has a clear left-liberal bias when filling in the Stemwijzer voting advice application. This was discovered by master's student Merel van den Broek during an assignment for the Machine Learning for Natural Language Processing course.

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

‘We have to have accountability.’ That was Roberta Metsola’ for her audience on Thursday evening. The President of the European Parliament had come to the Wijnhaven building to speak with students.

Political scientists Joop van Holsteyn and Tom Louwerse (Leiden University) find that the Dutch government is having a hard time coping with referendum outcomes in general, and ‘anti-European’ sentiments among voters in particular.