A fair distribution of goods and services is the most important factor in justifying political power. This is the conclusion of Honorata Mazepus in her PhD dissertation 'What makes authorities legitimate in the eyes of citizens?' PhD defence September.

WORLDING AMERICA researches how ‘play’ has been a key force in the past and present process of creating America as a coherent and hegemonic ‘world,’ from 1503 to the present.

On Wednesday 11 June 2025 Steffie van Gompel successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

The African Studies Centre Leiden’s Research Programme for 2025-2029 is called ‘African Trajectories: Past Dependencies and New Directions’. Building on its former programme, it extends the recognition of Africa’s pivotal role in world affairs. The continent’s global significance has become increasingly…

On 3 March 2021 Zuzana Vikarská presented some of her work in progress research at the Europa Institute's

This month's news and events by the profile area Political Legitimacy features the announcement of two PhD defences and several interesting seminars and conferences at Leiden University.

Every time we pay for something, our money moves through global technical systems that connect the world economy. These systems are convenient, but they also expose users to Western sanctions, prompting countries like Russia to look for alternative financial infrastructure.

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

On Tuesday 14 June, the Europa Institute welcomed Martijn Stronks, Assistant Professor at the Amsterdam Centre of Migration and Refugee Law of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, for its third ‘Meet the Author’ event.

This subproject offers a political and transnational perspective on the development and uses of public memories of the Revolt in the seventeenth century.

Kohei Suzuki is Assistant Professor at Institute of Public Administration. This study carries several important implications for understanding the policy impacts of a graying population and for studies of the welfare state, in general.

On 30 January 2024 Jurre van der Meer successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

Irna Hofman defended her thesis on 10 January 2019.

Research on this theme concerns the legitimacy and effectiveness of Europe’s institutional order in the face of public alienation and normative contestation.

What Accounts for the Variety of National Policy Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Europe?

Lipsius, Cleveringaplaats 1, 2311 BD, Leiden

Four researchers from Leiden University’s Institute of Political Science have been awarded a grant to jointly investigate attitudes towards Venezuelan immigrants among youths in Ecuador. Combining their expertise and collaborating with the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, they will focus on school-going…

On 22–24 October 2025, Leiden University welcomed scholars, policymakers and higher education leaders for the Una Europa Conference on Academic Freedom. Organised by the AFITE project team and supported by Una Europa Seed Funding 2024, the three-day programme examined current pressures on academic freedom…

Workshops, lectures

In my research I am concerned with the possibility of a politics of sexuality without reverting to identitarian conceptions of sexuality. In a reading of the work of the American author James Purdy, I propose to move towards a politicizing of the concept of narrative identity as developed by the French…

Zuzana Vikarská joined the Europa Institute in January 2021 as a visiting researcher within the re:constitution fellowship - a new programme funded by Stiftung Mercator comprising 20 fellows who have their own project. The fellows meet regularly to discuss work in progress and engage in academic mobility…

Earlier this month, the Europa Institute organized an internal discussion on the German PSPP-judgment. For the first time, the German Constitutional Court declared acts of EU institutions as manifestly excessive and thus as ultra vires acts under German constitutional law. During an online debate, various…

Over 200 people paid their first visit to the new Middle Eastern Library on a special open evening. As well as exploring the library, they got to see exhibitions, speed lectures and premieres about Leiden University’s Middle Eastern collections.

Moldavia is going through a governmental crisis. Antoaneta Dimitrova was asked to clarify the events on the Dutch radio programme ‘Bureau Buitenland’. She commented on the current political relations but also issued a warning: ‘Panic is rising, there is a real danger of conflict in the country.’

On Wednesday 27 September a new book by Prof. Luuk van Middelaar will appear, entitled The new politics of Europe. Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s first vice-president, presents the book that evening during a symposium around the same theme.

James Shires has contributed a chapter to the proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Cyber Conflict (CyCon 2021), which gathers 20 articles from the law, technology and strategy domains.

On 24 September 2020, Bernardo Ribeiro de Almeida defended his thesis 'Building land tenure systems: the political, legal, and institutional struggles of Timor-Leste'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. A.W. Bedner. Co-supervisor was Dr. C.I.M. Jacobs.

In this research note, Van der Does & Kantorowicz aruge that citizens that tend to experience political exclusion are often more supportive of direct and participatory forms of decision-making.

EU foreign policy has become increasingly politicised over the past years, amongst others as a consequence of the succession of crises. Crises may engender processes of crisis framing and contestation. This article focuses on how the policy demands being voiced in these processes of contestation are…

On Thursday 28 March 2024 Said Reza Huseini successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

The tenth Europa Lecture was delivered by Corinna Wissels, State Councillor at the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Dutch Council of State, deputy justice of the Dutch Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal and member of the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement arbitration panel.

On 12 April 2022 Alok Oak successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

On Wednesday 3 July 2024 Renata Schiavo successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

View the tuition fee details for the MSc The Politics of Artificial Intelligence at Leiden University: statutory rates for EU/EEA applicants and institutional fees for non‑EU students.

View tuition fee information for the MSc Political Theory: Legitimacy and Justice at Leiden University, including how fees vary by nationality, residency status and programme category.

The Centre for the History of European Integration (CHEI) is an initiative that brings together scholars working on European integration, broadly conceived, from a historical perspective.

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

Promotor: P. T. de Zeeuw, Co-promotor: N. Neumayer; G. van de Ven

What is the role of local authorities and communities in shaping how inter-Schengen borders are understood and dealt with?

On 1 September 2022 Güldeniz Kibris successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

This article introduces the concept of Repertoires of Comparison (RoCs) to explain how certain comparisons become deeply embedded in social and political life.

What makes a pension scheme sustainable? Most answers to this question have revolved around expert assessments of pension schemes’ affordability or adequacy. This study shifts focus from the financial or social sustainability of pension scheme designs to their political sustainability. The key question…

As Bolivia reels from the collapse of the government in November 2019, a wave of social protests, and now the impact of Covid-19, this book asks: where next for Bolivia?

What drives the restrictiveness of immigration reforms? Political scientists Katharina Natter (Leiden University), Mathias Czaika (Danube University Krems) and Hein de Haas (University of Amsterdam) analysed immigration reforms in 21 Western immigration countries between 1970 and 2012. They found that…

When we think of politics, we tend to think of adversary, antagonism, polarisation, a struggle for power. But politics should serve positive purposes, as well. Political psychologist and meditation teacher Femke Bakker (Leiden University) thinks that positive politics is first and foremost about tolerance.…

Documenting and describing languages of the world.