In this minor, you will learn about the structure, working methods, and the analysis techniques used by intelligence and security agencies in the Western world.

In secondary school, homophobic language is common, even in the Netherlands where there is high acceptance of homosexuality in the adult population. Adolescents especially in lower educational levels have prevailingly negative attitudes towards their lesbian and gay peers. Peer education with its participatory…

The central theme of the NWO-project ‘The Promise of Organization’ is the evolution of political organization during the 19th century. We focus on the enthusiasm, arguments and concrete activities of the organizers as well as the criticism offered by opponents of modern political organization.

This case study demonstrates how to design and effectively deploy a (survey embedded) conjoint experiment.

On 1 June 2022, Tom Herrenberg defended the thesis 'Prosecutorial Discretion in International Criminal Justice'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. P.B. Cliteur and Prof. B.R. Rijpkema.

After this course

Een mogelijke overname van het Nederlandse cloudbedrijf Solvinity door het Amerikaanse Kyndryl kan ertoe leiden dat de Amerikaanse overheid toegang krijgt tot DigiD-gegevens van Nederlandse burgers. Reijer Passchier, hoogleraar digitalisering en democratische rechtsstaat, waarschuwt op BNR-nieuwsradio…

Een mogelijke overname van het Nederlandse cloudbedrijf Solvinity door het Amerikaanse Kyndryl kan ertoe leiden dat de Amerikaanse overheid toegang krijgt tot DigiD-gegevens van Nederlandse burgers. Reijer Passchier, hoogleraar digitalisering en democratische rechtsstaat, waarschuwt op BNR-nieuwsradio…

De EU stelt vereenvoudigingen voor in digitale regelgeving - zoals minder frequente cookiemeldingen - maar tegenstanders waarschuwen voor een gevaarlijke concessie aan grote Amerikaanse techbedrijven Reijer Passchier, universitair docent staatsrecht en hoogleraar digitalisering en de democratische…

All players on the world stage operate strategically in order to safeguard their interests. Political scientists at Leiden University cast light on this volatile interplay of forces. Their research helps voters, NGOs, governments and international organizations make smart choices in this complex and…

Subproject of

China is a one-party regime, yet elections are held for the local congresses. PhD candidate Wang Zhongyuan investigated how the Communist Party uses this democratic instrument to strengthen the authoritarian regime. PhD defence 31 January.

Essential services risk being taken over by US Big Tech companies, affecting privacy and digital sovereignty in the Netherlands. Reijer Passchier, Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law and Professor of Digitalisation and the Democratic Rule of Law at OU, co-authored an opinion piece in ‘de Volkskrant’…

Momenteel vindt onder Trump in de VS, een snelle ontmanteling van verschillende instituties, die de democratische rechtstaat stutten, plaats. Wim Voermans, hoogleraar staatsrecht, acht de kans aanzienlijk kleiner dat dit in Nederland zal gebeuren door ons meerpartijenstelsel, het poldermodel en het…

NETHATE is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) project seeking to investigate the roots, societal impact and mitigation strategies of hate in offline and online foras.

Profile Area Political Legitimacy, Leiden University

Comparative and Dutch Politics is one of the three organisational clusters of the Institute of Political Science.

How do interest groups in the Netherlands use strategic litigation to bring about political, social or legal change, and how does this strategy compare to other, more classical, ways to influence policy?

The interdisciplinary network Faith in Democracy (FID) studies the religious, sometimes even totalitarian, assumptions behind the concept of

Book by Soledad Valdivia Rivera

This edited volume offers a critical discussion of the trade-offs between transparency and secrecy in the actual political practice of democratic states in Europe. As such, it answers to a growing need to systematically analyse the problem of secrecy in governance in this political and geographical…

Southern Africa has a rich tradition of social history, one inspired by the tumultuous changes that have regularly convulsed the region from the 1780s onwards. Scholars have always sought to understand what these changes meant for everyday life and emphasised a perspective of marginal groups, how these…

On 28 June, Jakob Tobing defended the thesis 'The essence of the 1999-2002 constitutional reform in Indonesia: remaking the Negara Hukum. A socio-legal study'. The doctoral research was supervised by Jan Michiel Otto and Adriaan Bedner.

On 25 October 2018, Tu Zhang defended her thesis 'Public Reason Secularism: A Defense of Liberal Democracy'. The doctoral research was supervised by prof. P. Cliteur.

In the wake of controversial disclosures of classified government information by WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden, questions about the democratic status of secret uses of political power are rarely far from the headlines. Despite an increase in initiatives aimed at enhancing government transparency – such…

In this article, Sophie Vériter examines the EU’s unprecedented ban on Russian state media following the invasion of Ukraine, using securitisation theory

This paper written by Alexandre Afonso, Assistant Professor and Researcher at Leiden University, argues that gender norms and the political strength of the left were important structuring factors regarding why European countries choose migrant labour to expand their labour force in the decades that…

This book offers a concise and accessible introduction to debates about expertise, policy-making and democracy. It uniquely combines an overview of recent research on the policy role of experts with discussions in political philosophy and the philosophy of expertise.

Written by a select international group of leading privacy scholars, Social Dimensions of Privacy endorses and develops an innovative approach to privacy.

SEECR-CONGO aims to strengthen the doctoral education ecosystem in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in order to foster a new generation of highly skilled researchers who can contribute to academia and the wider labour market.

The Institute for Philosophy at Leiden University is host to the NWO programme,

How is law shaped by and shaping social, political and economic change in Indonesia?

In countries with complex domestic situations, citizens have little opportunity to exercise influence on governance and policy. Leiden academics research these situations and share their insights with the public, such as in Nigeria for instance. This enables the people and their communities to improve…

How did parties as political organizations emerge?

Check the structure of the MSc Democracy and Representation at Leiden University: core and elective seminars, thesis or internship, semester format, and internship research integration.

On July 8 and 9, 2022, Leiden University hosted the second conference of the research group on Institutions for Conflict Resolution, in collaboration with Radboud University Nijmegen and Utrecht University.

In order to solve problems such as the refugee crisis, countries must work together at international level. This requires big changes in the way in which states make and implement policy. Leiden researchers analyse these changes and advise policymakers on best practices.

Politics is about the authorised allocation of values: who gets what, when and how much? This question is relevant at many different levels, in many different places and in very different ways.

This research project is supported by an NWO Aspasia grant, DeepDish TV, crowd-sourced funding, and the Democracy and Media Foundation.

The Team International Relations and European Studies addresses the interconnections and interdependence of contemporary global political, economic, security and culture from a multidisciplinary perspective rooted in the humanities. More specifically it is concerned with the study of international relations…

In this article, Thomas Maguire, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, examines why states use intelligence to influence external audiences.

On 27 June 2017, Daniel Dimov defended his PhD dissertation “Crowdsourced Online Dispute Resolution”. The supervisors are Professor H.J. van den Herik and Professor A.R. Lodder.

A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe is a synthetic work, authored by an international team of researchers, covering twenty national cultures and 250 years. It goes beyond the conventional nation-centered narratives and presents a novel vision especially sensitive to the cross-cultural…

On 9 April 2020, Mohamed Azizi defended his thesis 'Reflecties op Wereldburgerschap: In de spiegel van Afghanistan en Nederland'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. P.B. Cliteur en Prof. W. Veugelers (Universiteit voor Humanistiek).

The Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society (VVI) is part of the Leiden Law School.

Recently Cambridge University Press published dr. Jan Osters monograph “Media Freedom as a Fundamental Right”.

From Crisis to Critique