Tom Louwerse appointed Professor of Political Behaviour and Research Methods
The Executive Board of Leiden University has appointed Dr Tom Louwerse as Professor of Political Behaviour and Research Methods at the Institute of Political Science.
The chair brings together research and education on political behaviour with a focus on research methods. Key issues include the relationship between voters and their representatives, interactions among political elites—particularly in parliament and government—and the implications of these dynamics for the functioning of representative democracy.
Tom Louwerse obtained his PhD (2011) in Political Science from Leiden University. His doctoral work, partly conducted at the University of Nottingham, examined the democratic mandate of political parties in Great Britain and the Netherlands. From 2013 to 2015, he served as Assistant Professor at Trinity College Dublin. He returned to Leiden University in 2016 as Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2019.
Since 2023, Louwerse has served as Director of Research at the Institute of Political Science, which is a part of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. In this role he has contributed to policy on research strategy. Louwerse teaches and conducts research in the area of political representation, parliamentary behaviour, elections and opinion polls.
