Part of ‘Moralising Misfortune: A Comparative Anthropology of Commercial Insurance’, an ERC Consolidator project of Erik Bähre.

This project aims to explore, in general, what explains civil servants’ attitudes and behavior, and, in particular, why some civil servants are more committed to professional norms and public service values – such as impartiality, equity, efficiency, and innovation – than others.

Kohei Suzuki, assistant professor at Leiden University, together with Victor Lapuente, examined how male and female public managers show attitudinal differences toward innovation in the public sector.

Nobody likes it, but we do need bureaucracy, is Sandra Groeneveld's message in her inaugural lecture. Her advice is that we just need to handle it differently and should invest in people's behaviour, rather than focusing on strict rules.

Previous studies have identified institutional, organizational, and individual factors that promote innovation in public organizations. Yet they have overlooked how the type of public administration—and the type of administrators—is associated with innovative attitudes.

This book, edited by Joost Augusteijn, Constant Hijzen and Mark Leon de Vries, explores how democratic regimes have dealt with anti-democratic forces in society, from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century.

The Executive Board of Leiden University has appointed Professor Ken Meier to the Chair of Bureaucracy and Democracy at the Institute of Public Administration. The appointment starts on 1 September for a period of five years.

In his PhD research in the field of public administration, Mark Reijnders looked at why people do not receive the help they need. They lose their way in the labyrinthine support system or become bogged down in bureaucracy. In public administration this is known as non-take-up of social care. PhD defence…

Under what circumstances is politicization more likely to occur than others, and what impact does politicization have on government legitimacy and performance?

Court cases that get out of hand are enacted again and again, according to PhD candidate Tessa de Zeeuw. De Zeeuw: ‘Even if the court comes to the correct judgement, from a legal point of view, the issues that appear in a case such as that of Lucia de Berk continue to "tease" society.’

Inaugural Lecture

Studies on representative bureaucracy have often confirmed the positive performance effects of bureaucracies mirroring the demographic characteristics of their clientele. However, little is known about the underlying individual level mechanisms leading to these outcomes.

At the heart of this study is a thorough inquiry of categorisations of social identity used in the VOC’s record-keeping bureaucracy. How were service, occupational and caste groups classified and shaped by the VOC?

With regard to governance, policies and law, many Muslims and Muslim countries recognise the possibility that Islam has something important to say about the way society is to be ordered, governed, and regulated.

How do insurance products transform intimate and personal relations? What are the consequences of the classifications that insurance companies use and how do these affect solidarity, morality and inequality?

How citizens and professionals are the key to successful collaboration in the delivery of public services. How do individual characteristics of citizens and professionals influence citizen-professional collaboration in the co-production of public services?

How did the imperial administration of justice function during the reign of the Severans?

Professor Sandra Groeneveld’s inaugural lecture is getting closer. On May 27 she will deliver her lecture called: “The relevance of bureaucracy. How to deal with ambivalence in public management”. Ahead of this inaugural lecture, professor Groeneveld gave us an interview last week. In this interview…

The word bureaucracy does not have negative connotations for Ken Meier. Meier, Professor of Bureaucracy and Democracy, has a clear grasp of the relationship between elected politicians and bureaucracy, or the civil service. Inaugural lecture on Monday 20 May.

This proposed research uses ego-documents from visual artists that were not intended for publication to reassess the scholarly debate on the demise of the Russian Avant-garde aesthetic in the twenties and early thirties of the 20th century.

Colonialism Inside Out: Everyday Experience and Plural Practice in Dutch Institutions in Sri Lanka (c. 1700-1800)

Governance is a complex puzzle of organisations, people and divergent interests. Academic research in this field furthers our knowledge of the role of public administrators, of different organisational structures, of the people who work at such organisations and of how these organisations implement…

Studying International Relations and Organisations (IRO) you will address transboundary issues from a social sciences point of view. It is an international 3-year programme with a strong focus on current global affairs.

This video accompanies the article "Navigating Discretion: A Diplomatic Practice in Moments of Socio-political Rupture", published in Vol. 14, Issue 4 of The Hague Journal of Diplomacy.

The organisations and people who implement government policy face many different types of change. Academics from Leiden University research how they deal with these and advise them on how best to meet the needs and wishes of society.

No matter where you come from, life in the Netherlands will be a little (or a lot) different to your home country.

Thanks to its early civilisation and continuous mix of influences, the Muslim world has a rich and varied culture. The study of material culture, books, stories, films and increasingly television series teaches us about the structure of modern-day Muslim societies.

The Institute of Public Administration of Leiden University - Campus The Hague welcomes two new professors: Dr. S.M. Groeneveld and Dr. A. K. Yesilkagit.

Following periods of oppression and widespread violations of human rights, there is often a need for transitional vetting – a sort of ‘cleansing’ of the civil service. Where does this need come from? There are many answers to this question. But vetting, among other things, can contribute to recovering…

A History of Dutch Corruption and Morality showcases 300 years of change, continuity, and diversity in the history of Dutch political corruption and public morality. It analyses a series of corruption scandals and shows how the following debates were connected to the big changes of that time: from the…

Caspar van den Berg, researcher and Assistant Professor at the Institute of Public Administration, has been awarded a prestigious Veni grant of 250,000 euros from the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NOW) for his international comparative research on politicization of top civil servants.

Impressions by Oene de Haan - PhD candidate at Utrecht University.

You are about to start your Master's programme in MSc. Public Administration at Leiden University in The Hague, The Netherlands. Make sure you are well prepared and get your studies off to a good start.

Professor Ken Meier is one of the most prominent researchers of the world in the field of Public Administration. Meier holds appointments as a professor of Public Administration at Cardiff School of Business (Wales), a professor of bureaucracy and democracy at Leiden University (The Netherlands), research…

For most of the past ten years, Europe has been in a state of ‘crisis’. The bank crisis mutated seamlessly via the Euro crisis to the present migrant crisis. Whereas previously the general assumption was that even closer cooperation within the European Union was a foregone conclusion, the EU is now…

Research is the basis for good security policy. By analysing the motives of radicalised people and identifying the biggest risks in the area of digital communication, Leiden University researchers are helping governments to formulate effective countermeasures.

This fall, LUCIS will have the pleasure of welcoming Professor Wadad Kadi, of the University of Chicago, to Leiden. She is the first Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain Cultural Foundation Visiting Professor in Arabic Culture at Leiden University.

Lecture