Leiden University offers ambitious students a world-class environment in which to reach their full potential.

The seminar series on ‘Diversity and Inclusion in Global Science’ aims to foster debate on inequalities in science across the world. We hope to invite critical discussions on how research evaluation and communication include/exclude topics so far seen labelled as “regional” and/or published in “local"…

In the 60s and 70s, Black Power groups were also active in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This is what PhD candidate Debby Esmeé de Vlugt has discovered.

Lecture, PCNI Roundtable

Political scientist Tom Louwerse (Leiden University) and a team of international researchers have been awarded a NWO ORA grant. They are going to investigate political representation in an era in which voter alignment with political parties is steadily decreasing.

Antoaneta Dimitrova, Professor Comparative Governance at Leiden University, Honorata Mazepus, Assistant professor at Leiden University and Dimiter Toshkov, Associate Professor at Leiden University, together with three other authors researched which aspects of state capacity might contribute to opening…

The death of George Floyd at the hands of the police may have sparked the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States and here in the Netherlands, but they are about more than that alone. We asked Karwan Fatah-Black, a historian who specialises in the Dutch colonial history, for his analysis. ‘We…

This paper sheds light on how better monetary-fiscal coordination can be expected to play out across very different political-economic contexts.

No evidence found that increasing migration leads to an increase in politically and ideologically motivated criminality. Migration flows have, however resulted in increased polarisation in the Netherlands.

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

Leiden political scientists Yvonne Kleistra and Niels van Willigen have advised the United States State Department as to how to evaluate its foreign policy. Point of departure was a scientific model that Kleistra and Van Willigen have developed on the basis of their work for the Dutch Foreign Affairs…

This multidisciplinary minor within the department of Latin American Studies offers the opportunity to combine language acquisition courses in Spanish or Portuguese with modules in the history, literature, culture and cinema of Spanish America and Brazil. Students can choose to follow the Spanish or…

You’ve been accepted! Leiden University looks forward to welcoming you as a new student. Your next step is to prepare for your studies. Below you can find some tips to help you get a head start as you embark on your studies at Leiden University.

You’ve been accepted! Leiden University looks forward to welcoming you as a new student. Your next step is to prepare for your studies. Below you can find some tips to help you get a head start as you embark on your studies at Leiden University.

Get to know us through our online and in-person events for prospective students!

Get to know us through our online and in-person events for prospective students!

Two researchers from the Institute of Political Science were recently awarded prizes. Claire Vergerio received the Francesco Guicciardini Prize for her book on the historical origins of the primacy of the state in international law ('best book in the historical international relations category'). In…

The starting hypothesis of the project is that secrecy is not always inimical to democratic governance as conventional wisdom has it.

To address the relevance of Christianity to the ideological negotiations with the officially established authority, this research will be conducted by asking how the history enthusiasts negotiate the Christianity-related ideology through reconstructing the Christian past and reproducing religious histories…

It is often said that the links between political parties in Africa and their voters are clientelist, rather than programmatic. The familiar image is that of African ‘big men’, displaying personal wealth while being respected and celebrated in the community for sharing their riches. Yet, political scientist…

Why did India develop a strong military partnership with the state of Irael, after having ignored it for 42 years? How could both countries develop defense ties in spite of limited political leadership involvement? Finally, what are the prospects for defense relations as India grows to become one of…

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.

On 23 February 2011, Hans de Iongh gave a Skype lecture for a group of 15 students of the Duke University of North Carolina, USA on the invitation of Dr Andrew Jacobson.

In ‘Dimensions of Free Speech’, Devrim Kabasakal Badamchi (Leiden University Institute of Political Science) offers a new theoretical framework for free speech by critically analysing the major justifications for free speech. Kabasakal Badamchi argues for a justification: namely the double-grounded…

Political scientist Wouter Veenendaal (Leiden University) provides an in-depth case study of clientelism in Malta, the smallest member state of the European Union. He reveals that not only that patron–client linkages are a ubiquitous feature of political life in Malta, but also that the smallness of…