Expert Network

Vanessa A. Boese is a post-doctoral researcher at the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her research focusses on processes of regime transformation (democratization and autocratization) and on how these processes interact with conflict, or socio-economic outcomes. She obtained her PhD in economics summer 2019 at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany. Her thesis “Why Democracy Matters: An Economic Perspective” covers how to (not) measure democracy in quantitative studies; macro-economic models of trade, development, democracy and peace, as well as panel data methods. Her paper “Heterogeneity Matters: on the dynamic interactions between trade, development, democracy and conflict” (with K. Kamin, IfW Kiel) received the Michael D. Intrilligator Best PhD Student Paper Award at the 23rd International Conference in Economics and Security in Madrid, Spain (June 2019).

Thurid Hustedt is Professor of Public Administration and Management at the Hertie School. Her research focuses on public sector change dynamics, political-administrative relations and comparative public administration. Hustedt is the Managing Editor of the peer-reviewed journal dms – der moderne Staat (with Sylvia Veit). Previously, she was a visiting professor at the Freie Universität Berlin and a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Potsdam. She was a visiting researcher at the University of Bergen and the University of Toronto. Hustedt holds a PhD and a Diploma in Public Administration from Potsdam University.

Klaus Jacob is political scientist, and research director of the Environmental Research Centre at the Freie Universität Berlin. His research focusses on environmental and sustainability policies in international comparison. His projects compromise both basic research and applied policy consultation. He is president of The Integrated Assessment Society and alternate member of the management board of the European Environmental Agency. Jacob was a coordinating lead author of UNEP’s GEO 6 assessment.

Carina Schmitt is Professor of Global Social Policy at the Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy at the University of Bremen. She holds a MA from the University of Mainz, a PhD from the University of Mannheim and a Habilitation from the University of Bremen. Her research focuses on social and economic policies in international comparative perspective. Previoulsy, she was a visiting researcher at the University of Michigan, at Georgetown University and at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University.

After training as an industrial administrator and in business management at the VWA in Bochum, Dr Thorsten Hellmann studied economics at the University of Münster and was awarded his doctorate in 2003. Since 2004, he has been working as a project manager for the Bertelsmann Stiftung, where he has spent several years analyzing national and international benchmarks for labor market, economic and social policy, as part of the Evidence-Based Policy Strategies program. He was i.a. responsible for the project “Benchmarking German States”, in which the German states were compared and assessed in terms of incomes, employment and security.

Christof Schiller heads the „Sustainable Governance Indicators“ (SGI) project. He joined the Bertelsmann Stiftung in 2016 and, in addition to the SGI project, also worked on two projects that develop long-term solutions for an inclusive and dynamic labour market and sustainable social security systems as part of the “Shaping Sustainable Economies” and “Future of Work” programmes. Christof earned his diploma degree and doctorate (Dr. rer. pol.) in Public Policy and Management from the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Potsdam. He is the author of two monographs and numerous scientific articles, book chapters and policy reports. Christof has taught classes and held academic positions at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin and the University of Potsdam, where he remains an associated Fellow of the Potsdam Center for Policy and Management. The main focus of his research is on comparative welfare state reform, public sector governance and employment policies. His latest book is The Politics of Welfare State Transformation in Germany. Still a Semi-Sovereign State? (Routledge, April 2016).

Martin Brusis is a free-lance political analyst based in Munich. His research has focused on the quality of democracy and governance in Central and Eastern Europe. Martin has also worked as a consultant and policy advisor with several governments, think tanks and international organizations. He has co-authored the concept and methodology of the Sustainable Governance Indicators. His work has been published in journals such as Comparative European Politics, Governance, Politische Vierteljahresschrift, Regional and Federal Studies, and West European Politics.

Stefan Empter is Senior Advisor as well as Member of the Management Committee of the Bertelsmann Stiftung. He studied Economics and Sociology and gained a PhD from the University of Augsburg. He has been working for the Bertelsmann Stiftung since 1989. After heading a number of different divisions, departments and programs of the foundation he has been Head of the Program Shaping Sustainable Economies as Senior Director (2008 to 2020). He is author and editor of numerous publications and engaged in a number of advisory boards of other foundations and institutions – e.g. of the “Institute for Economic Education” (IÖB) at the University of Oldenburg (2006 to 2020) as well as the Global Network of Foundations Working for Development (netFWD) of the OECD Development Centre (2014 to 2020). In addition he was Member of the Executive Board of the “Initiative for Employment Ostwestfalen-Lippe” in Bielefeld (2004 to 2015) and is Chairman and CEO of the “Stiftung Wirtschaft Verstehen” (Foundation for Economic Understanding) in Essen since 2013.

András Inotai served as general director of the Institute for World Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary from 1991 to 2011. Currently, he is research director and has been professor emeritus since July 2013. He has held several academic posts with various institutions, including the Kiel Institute of World Economy (1971) and San Marcos University in Lima, Perú (1972–1973). He has since 1993 been visiting professor at the College of Europe, Bruges and Natolin, and was visiting professor at Columbia University in New York (2002). He worked at the World Bank’s Trade Policy Division in Washington D.C. from 1989 to 1991, and headed the Strategic Task Force at the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office from 1995 to 1998 in order to prepare Hungary for official negotiations with the European Union. Mr. Inotai’s research focuses on global and European economic issues, comparative economic development and the “integration maturity” of the new member countries and, most recently, on crisis management in the EU and the eurozone. He has been or is a member of several councils, including the Progressive Economy Initiative in the framework of the European Parliament and the TEPSA Board for several mandates.

Werner Jann holds the chair for political science, administration and organisation at Potsdam University (Germany), and is director of the Potsdam Center for Policy and Management (PCPM). His main publications are in the field of comparative public policy and administration, modernization of the public sector, better regulation and public governance. He has served on a number of government commissions addressing issues such as public sector reform and labor market administration. He is vice-president of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS) in Brussels, past president of the European Group of Public Administration (EGPA) and was for eight years member of the UN Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA) in New York. He has been a visiting professor at the School of Government, Victoria University, Wellington (New Zealand), and is adjunct professor at the Department of Administration and Organization Theory, University of Bergen, Norway.

Hans-Dieter Klingemann earned his academic degrees from the University of Cologne (1966: Dr. rer. pol.) and the University of Mannheim (1978: Dr. habil.). He has held academic posts at the Center for Survey Research (ZUMA), Mannheim (1974–1980), the Freie Universität Berlin (1980–2002), and many other universities in Canada, France, Italy, Germany and the United States of America. Since 1995 he has been a senior fellow of the Center for the Study of Democracy, University of California, Irvine. Currently he is an advisor to the Bahcesehir University Istanbul. His current research interests focus on political parties, party systems, democratic politics, and the development of political science as a discipline. Publications comprise numerous books (13), edited volumes (24) and more than 160 journal articles or book chapters (author or co-author). Among his major books and edited volumes are The Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (Hans-Dieter Klingemann, ed. 2009. Oxford: Oxford University Press), The Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior (Russell J. Dalton and Hans-Dieter Klingemann, eds. 2007. Oxford: Oxford University Press), The State of Political Science in Western Europe (Hans-Dieter Klingemann, ed. 2007. Opladen: Barbara Budrich), Mapping Policy Preferences II: Parties, Electorates and Governments in Eastern Europe and the OECD 1990-2003. (Hans-Dieter Klingemann, Andrea Volkens, Ian Budge, Judith Bara, and Michael D. McDonald. 2006. Oxford: Oxford University Press), A New Handbook of Political Science. (Robert E. Goodin and Hans-Dieter Klingemann, eds. 1996. Oxford: Oxford University Press), Citizens and the State. (Hans-Dieter Klingemann and Dieter Fuchs, eds. 1995. Oxford: Oxford University Press), Parties, Policies, and De-mocracy (Hans-Dieter Klingemann, Richard I. Hofferbert, and Ian Budge. 1994. .Boulder, Colorado: Westview), and Political Action (Samuel H. Barnes, Max Kaase et al. 1979. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage).

Rolf J. Langhammer was vice-president of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy from October 1997 until August 2012 and professor at the Kiel Institute. He retired from the vice-presidency on August 31, 2012 but continues to work at the Institute. He also teaches at the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, Vallendar. From April 2003 to September 2004, he served as acting president. From July 1995 to November 2005, he headed the research department Development Economics and Global Integration at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. In addition, he has been honorary professor in international economic relations and development economics at the Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Social Sciences, Kiel University since November 1995. Mr. Langhammer has served as consultant to a number of international institutions (EU, World Bank, OECD, UNIDO, ADB), as well as to the German ministries of economic affairs and economic co-operation. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Federal Ministry of Economic Co-operation and Development. His research issues cover international trade patterns, trade policies, regional integration and international capital flows.

Wolfgang Merkel is director of the Democracy and Democratisation research program at the WZB Berlin Social Science and professor of political science at the Humboldt University Berlin. He is a member of a number of key bodies, including the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He is also a non-party member of the Basic Values Commission of the Executive Committee of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). His publications include The Future of Representative Democracy (2011, together with Sonia Alonso and John Keane); Systemtransformation (2010); Social Democracy in Power. The Capacity to Reform (2008), which has been translated into German, Chinese and Vietnamese; the 2-volume Defekte Demokratie (2002, 2006); and more than 200 journal articles on such subjects as democracy and democratization, 21st-century dictatorships, political parties, comparative public policy, the future of social democracy, welfare states and social justice.

Hans-Jürgen Puhle is professor of political science at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main (em. 2009). Before he came to Frankfurt (1990,) he taught at the universities of Münster and Bielefeld, and has been a visiting scholar at numerous institutions in Europe and the Americas, among them Oxford, Cornell, Harvard, Stanford and Tel Aviv universities, Universidad de Chile Santiago, FLACSO Buenos Aires, Instituto Juan March Madrid, Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona. He received his PhD from the Freie Universität in Berlin (1965) and a Habilitation from the University of Münster (1973). Mr. Puhle has published widely in the fields of comparative social and political history of Western Europe, North and Latin America, comparative politics, varieties of capitalism and democracy, political parties and movements, nationalism, populism and democratization. His current research focuses on mechanisms of political intermediation and on the different trajectories of Western and non-Western societies into modernity.

Friedbert W. Rüb holds the chair for political sociology and social policy at Humboldt-University Berlin and is currently managing director of the institute of social sciences. His research focuses on political decision-making processes, the development of welfare state structures and social policy issues. His current research examines rapid policy changes in Germany and social vulnerability.

Kai-Uwe Schnapp is professor of political science with a focus on research methods at the University of Hamburg, where he also heads the study program in political science. He studied political science and public administration in Berlin and Minneapolis and holds a doctorate (2002) from the Freie Universität Berlin. His publications focus on the comparative study of government bureaucracies and parliaments and, more recently, on minority issues.

Daniel Schraad-Tischler is Director, Program “Shaping Sustainable Economies”, at the Bertelsmann Stiftung in Gütersloh, Germany. He joined the Stiftung in 2008 and headed the “Sustainable Governance Indicators” (SGI) project. Daniel holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Cologne (Faculty of Management, Economics, and Social Sciences) as well as a master’s in Political Science, History and German Literature (Cologne). His main areas of research are good governance, sustainable development as well as cross-national comparisons of social justice and equality of opportunity. Before joining the Bertelsmann Stiftung, he worked as a research associate at the Jean Monnet Chair for Political Science and European Affairs at the University of Cologne. He also gained project management experience at the European Parliament and at Bayer AG.

Prof. Uwe Wagschal (*1966) is Professor for Comparative Politics at the University of Freiburg. He received his M.A. in Political Science (1992), his Diploma in Economics (1993) and his PhD in Political Science (1996) from the University of Heidelberg. In 2003 he became Professor for Political Science at the University of Munich and in 2005 at the University of Heidelberg. His main interests are public finance, direct democracy and political institutions. He is also author of a book about statistics for political scientists.

Roger Wilkins is a principal research fellow with the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne. His research activity and publications have primarily focused on the nature, causes and consequences of earnings outcomes and labor force status outcomes, and the determinants and dynamics of household income and individual welfare reliance.

Ludger Helms (*1967) is Professor of Political Science and Chair of Comparative Politics at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. He has previously been a Senior Research Professor in the Department of Webster University and has held numerous visiting fellowships/professorships at, inter alia, Harvard, Barnard, Berkeley, the London School of Economics and Political Science, LUISS, Central European University, the University of Tokyo, Gadjah Mada University, and the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna. He is a member of the editorial/advisory board of several major journals (such as Government & Opposition; Politics & Governance; and Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft) and a referee for numerous international research councils, such as the German and Austrian Academic Exchanges Services, the Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada, EURIAS, and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research). He has published extensively on comparative political institutions, executive politics, elites, and political leadership.

Micael Castanheira holds a PhD in economics from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. He is a senior research fellow of the Belgian National Science Foundation and works at ECARES, a research center of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, where he teaches microeconomics and political economics. He also worked at the Bocconi University in Milan. His main research topics include the political economics of collective decisions, and of reforms. His work has been published in leading academic journals such as Econometrica, The Journal of the European Economic Association, The Economic Journal, International Economic Review, International Tax and Public Finance, and in several books. In addition to his scholarly activities, he is a member of the board of the Price Observatory of the Belgian government and acts as an economic expert for one of the main companies listed on the Brussels stock exchange.

Georgy Ganev is an economist and is a program director for economic research at the Centre for liberal strategies in Sofia, Bulgaria. He has been an assistant professor at Sofia University’s Faculty of Economics and Business Administration since 2003 and been the acting Chair of the Governing Council of the Bulgarian Macroeconomics Association since 2005. His interests include issues of macroeconomics and monetary theory and policy, political economy, transition, development and growth economics and new institutional economics. At the university, he teaches the standard courses on introductory macroeconomics, money and banking, as well as a graduate seminar in new institutional economics. George Ganev’s recent publications (in English) include The Political Economy of Reform Failure (edited by Mats Lundahl and Michael Wyzan. Routledge 2005) and “Where Has Marxism Gone?” in East European Politics and Societies (Routledge 2005).

André Lecours is Full Professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. His main research interests are Canadian politics, European politics, nationalism (with a focus on Quebec, Scotland, Flanders, Catalonia and the Basque country) and federalism. He is the editor of New Institutionalism. Theory and Analysis published by the University of Toronto Press in 2005, the author of Basque Nationalism and the Spanish State (University of Nevada Press, 2007), and the co-author (with Daniel Béland) of Nationalism and Social Policy. The Politics of Territorial Solidarity (Oxford University Press, 2008).

Fabian Klein has been an advisor for bilateral and triangular development projects for the German International Cooperation (GIZ) GmbH in Chile since 2008. Mr. Klein is currently senior advisor at GIZ for triangular cooperation in Chile. He received an MA in social science from the University of Chile with a focus on the sociology of modernization and development and a BA in social science from the Ruhr University Bochum (Germany).

Kristijan Kotarski is Assistant Professor in International Political Economy at Faculty of Political Science, University Zagreb, Croatia. He serves as a Head of the Centre for European Studies at Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb. At the same Faculty he also serves as a Director for the University of Zagreb specialist degree “Adaptation to the EU: Project Management, EU funds and EU programs”. He has participated in several high-profile international projects such as: Chapel Hill Expert Survey 2019, euandi2019, EMERiCs Project South Korea 2020, Integrating Diversity in the EU (InDivEU), Bertelsmann Stiftung SGI 2020 and ECFR’s Rethink: Europe. His research focus covers several topics: political economy of European integration, Croatian political economy, political economy of China and international monetary relations. So far he has published more than 20 scientific and 40 professional papers. His co-edited volume Policy-Making at the European Periphery: The Case of Croatia was published in May 2019 by Palgrave Macmillan, part of Springer Nature. He also published his research in: Europe-Asia Studies, China Economic Journal, Review of Radical Political Economics, World Review of Political Economy, Croatian Political Science Review.

Christophoros Christophorou, a leading expert in European media law, regulation, policies and an established political and elections analyst, has over thirty years’ experience in researching electoral behavior and party politics. He has served as a campaign consultant for presidential and mayoral candidates in Cyprus. Mr. Chistophorou has been active in European media expert bodies, in particular the Eureka Audiovisual (1989–1992), Council of Europe media experts groups (1991–2001) and in the work of media expert groups helping to shape European media and communications policies. He has been employed by the Council of Europe as an external media expert since 2000 and represents the Council in meetings, training seminars and conferences. He has drafted for the Council media expert reports and codes of conduct and has collaborated with European media institutes in drafting reports on Cyprus media topics, such as market definitions, co- and self-regulation, transparency in ownership, the implementation of the European AVMS Directive, citizens’ right to information. Together with other experts, he drafted the Declaration of Brussels on Media Education for all, at the invitation of the Belgian EU presidency (December 2010). He has published several books and articles on issues related to elections, political parties and the media, including Media and Elections: Case Studies (editor, European Media Institute (Dusseldorf-Belgrade, 2003) and Cyprus Media Narratives, Politics and the Cyprus Problem (editor, PRIO, Cyprus July 2010).

Petra Guasti is an Associate Professor of Democratic Theory at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences (on leave). Between 2016 and 2021 served as a senior researcher, an Interim Professor and adjunct lecturer at the Goethe University Frankfurt. In April 2021 she completed her (cumulative) habilitation Democracy Disrupted at the Goethe University Frankfurt. Petra received her doctoral degree in political science from the University of Bremen. She also previously earned a doctoral degree in political sociology from the Charles University in Prague. In March 2019, she completed an eight-month Visiting Democracy Fellowship at Harvard University’s Ash Centre for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. She serves as an expert for Bertelsmann Transformation Index, Sustainable Governance Indicators for over a decade, and V-Dem since 2018. In 2020 she has been appointed to the expert board of the Nation in Transit (Freedom House).

Robert Klemmensen is a professor of Comparative Politics at the Department of Political Science, Lund University. He specializes in voter behavior, party strategies and the interactions between political institutions and voter preferences. He serves as an associate editor for the journal Political Psychology and he has published in journals such as Comparative Political Studies, European Journal of Political Research and Psychological Science.

Anu Toots is professor of comparative public policy and director of the Institute of Politics and of Governance at Tallinn University, Estonia. Her research interests include governance of the welfare state, transformations of the post communist welfare regimes, public policy analysis, and educational reforms around the world. She has been extensively engaged in comparative educational research and consulted several national educational reforms. Her research articles have appeared in Journal of Baltic Studies, International, Journal of Social Science Education, Studies of Transition States and Societies and many others.

Heikki Hiilamo currently works at the Department of Social Policy, University of Helsinki. Heikki does research in Social Policy and tobacco control.

Yves Mény, a political scientist, has taught at several French universities, incuding the Sciences Po in Paris before joining the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence where he created and developed the Robert Schuman Center, a policy-oriented research center. He served as president of the EUI from 2002 to 2009. His research interests have focused on comparative institutions, politics and policies, and have shifted toward the study of corruption and populism in Europe. Over the past years, he has published several articles on the democratic challenges facing the European Union. He sits on the board of a variety of international journals as well as the boards of institutions of higher education in Europe. He is presently president of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, a center of excellence in the field of social sciences, engineering, robotics and biomedical research.

Friedrich Heinemann is head of the public finance department at the Center for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim (Germany). He received his PhD from the University of Mannheim and his Habilitation from the University of Heidelberg. His research interests include empirical public finance, and European integration and reform processes. Mr. Heinemann teaches at the University of Heidelberg, is a board member of the Arbeitskreis Europäische Integration and member of the Scientific Board of the Institut für Europäische Politik (IEP) in Berlin.

Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos is associate professor of political science at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of the University of Athens and senior research fellow at the Athens-based think tank ELIAMEP. Mr. Sotiropoulos has studied law, sociology and political science in Athens, London and New Haven, CT (Yale PhD 1991). His publications include the volumes Is South-Eastern Europe Doomed to Instability?, (co-edited with Thanos Veremis), London: Frank Cass , 2002, and Democracy and the State in the New Southern Europe (co-edited with Richard Gunther and P. Nikiforos Diamandouros), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. In 2003 he was senior research fellow at the Hellenic Observatory of the London School of Econoics and in 2009–2010 visiting fellow in South East European Studies at the Centre for European Studies, St. Antony’s College, Oxford. He has also published articles on democratization, civil society, public administration and social policy in Greece, Southern Europe and the Balkans in international journals (European Journal of Social Policy, Social Policy and Administration, West European Politics, South European Society and Politics, Europe-Asia Studies, South East European and Black Sea Studies).

Attila Ágh is a full professor in the Department of Political Science and head of the PhD School at Budapest’s Corvinus University. He was a visiting professor at many universities from Aarhus to Vienna, and also from New Delhi to Los Angeles. His research focuses on comparative politics with an emphasis on EU developments, and Europeanization and democratization processes in the new member states. Mr. Ágh has for several years worked on political science projects at the EU, Central European and Hungarian levels. He has published altogether more than twenty books and 100 papers in several languages, primarily English. He has recently edited a series of books, including From the Lisbon Strategy to the Europe 2020 Strategy: Think European for the Global Action (2010); European Union at the Crossroads: The European Perspectives after the Global Crisis (2011); European Futures: The Perspectives of the New Member States in the New Europe (2013). His latest book is Progress Report on the New Member States: 20 Years of Social and Political Developments (2013).

Grétar Thór Eythórsson is a professor of political science and methodology at the University of Akureyri. He received his PhD in political science at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden in 1999. His main areas of research explore local government and politics, and regional development policy, subjects on which he has written in Icelandic, Swedish and English. He has been active for several years in international research cooperation efforts with organizations such as NORDREGIO (Nordic Centre for Spatial Development) and ESPON (European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion). His PhD examined municipal amalgamations in Iceland, and his current research focuses on municipal structural reforms.

Barry Colfer is the IIEA Director of Research. Barry holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil from the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) at the University of Cambridge. Prior to joining the IIEA, Barry was Max Weber Fellow at EUI Florence. Barry previously held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Oxford, Harvard University, and the Politecnico di Torino in Italy. Prior to this Barry studied at University College Dublin and spent two years in student politics. Barry’s research interests include the politics of European integration, the future of work, and the consequences of Brexit for Ireland. Barry is a fellow of the UK Royal Society of the Arts (RSA) and has worked at both the Irish and European Parliaments as well as with a number of leading European think tanks.

Dr. Alex Altshuler (PhD, MSW, MA) joined the Program on Crisis Leadership as a Fulbright Post-Doctoral Fellow in August 2014; he has served as a Senior Fellow with PCL since September 2017. A prominent national and international researcher and civil servant in the areas of crisis leadership and emergency management, he focuses on psychosocial, organizational, strategic, and international aspects of emergency preparedness and disaster risk reduction, among other topics.
Dr. Altshuler currently serves as the Director of Social Sciences and Humanities at Israel’s Ministry of Science and Technology and as the Founding Chair of the Scientific Steering Committee of the National Knowledge and Research Center in Emergency Readiness.

Maurizio Cotta is professor of political science at the University of Siena and formerly president of the Italian Political Science Association. He was a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin, the European University Institute of Fiesole, the IEPs of Lille and Paris, the Central European University of Budapest, and the Minda de Günzburg Center for European Studies of Harvard University. His main areas of interest include the comparative study of political elites and political institutions, as well as Italian politics. He has authored or edited the following publications: Parliaments and Democratic Consolidation in Southern Europe (Pinter 1990), Party and Government (1996), The Nature of Party Government (Palgrave 2000), Parliamentary Representatives in Europe (Oxford University Press 2000), Democratic Representation. Diversity, Change and Convergence (Oxford University Press 2007), Political Institutions of Italy (Oxford University Press 2007), and Democracia, Partidos e Elites Politicas (Livros Horizonte 2008). He has coordinated the 6th Framework Programme Research project InTune (2005–2009).

Professor Ito Peng is a Canada Research Chair in Global Social Policy and the Director of the Centre for Global Social Policy at the Department of Sociology, and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. She is an expert in global social policy, specializing in gender, migration and care policies, and the care economy. She has written extensively on social policies and political economy of care. She leads a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Open Society Foundations supported global partnership research project, Care Economies in Context: Towards Sustainable Social and Economic Development (2021-2028). For more information, see: https://munkschool.utoronto.ca/profile/peng-ito/ and http://cgsp.ca/

Indra Mangule is an associate analyst at the Centre for Public Policy PROVIDUS, Latvia’s leading think tank, where her research focuses on migration, migrant integration and citizen participation. She is currently based in Sir Bernard Crick Centre at the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom, where she is pursuing a PhD in Mainstreaming Deliberative Mechanisms using a civic republican theoretical approach. She holds a degree in Politics and Philosophy from the University of Glasgow and a MSc in Democracy and Democratisation from the University College London.

Vytautas is an Associate professor at Vilnius University. His research focuses on international and comparative political economy. Vytautas has published in journals such as Journal of Common Market Studies, Post-Soviet Affairs, Party Politics, European Journal of Political Economy, European Security, International Review of Administrative Sciences, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, Journal of Baltic Studies. Vytautas has been a Fulbright scholar at Harvard Univeristy and a research fellow at Yale University. In addition, Vytautas has had research stays at University of Zurich, University College London, Central European University, European University Institute, Bristol University, and Tallinn Technical University.

Dr Elena Danescu is a Research Scientist in the Contemporary History of Europe Department at the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH), University of Luxembourg. She is a PhD supervisor at the Doctoral School in Humanities and Social Sciences (DSHSS)/University of Luxembourg, in the discipline “History”. Her research expertise is focused on: History of economic thought; contemporary history of Europe; Luxembourg and European integration; Economic and Monetary Union – history and networks, oral history of European integration; democratic transitions (political and economic) in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe: EU’s eastward enlargement. Since 2016 she is in charge of the courses “Histoire de la construction européenne (1919-1990)” and “Histoire économique et sociale de l’Europe après 1945: concepts, mécanismes, acteurs” at master’s level [Master en Histoire européenne contemporaine (MAHEC)], and of the course “Transitions démocratiques dans l’Europe centrale et orientale’’ at bachelor’s level [Bachelor en Cultures européennes (BCE)]. She is currently also carrying out the interdisciplinary research project ‘Competition, convergence, harmonisation – a comparative analyse of the taxation in Be-Ne-Lux states (1945-1992)’. She has authored numerous research publications in her specialist areas.

Godfrey A. Pirotta is professor of government and policy studies and director of the Institute of Public Administration and Management at the University of Malta. He studied politics, economics, international relations and public policy at Oxford, Reading and Bath, where he obtained his PhD in 1991. Over the years, he has lectured as a visiting scholar at a number of universities including Oxford, Canberra, Plymouth, De Montfort and Strasbourg. His research focuses on the study of public management and public policy in small states, and the evolution of governing institutions in Malta. His publications include The Maltese Public Service: The Administrative Politics of a Micro-state; Guardian of the Purse: A History of State Audit in Malta, and Malta’s Parliament: An Official History. Papers published in books and periodicals address such issues as local government in micro-states, privatization, public service training and reform.

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Muno is Chair of Comparative Politics at the University of Rostock. Previously, he was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Mainz (habilitation 2015), Acting Professor of International Relations and Comparative Political Systems at University of Landau, Acting Professor of International Relations at Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen, and Acting Professor for Political Science at Willy Brandt School. He was Visiting Scholar at AICGS/Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC, USA, University of Ottawa, Canada; at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law SHUPL, Shanghai, China; at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina; at Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas at Austin, USA; and guest lecturer in India, Poland, Norway, Sweden, the UK, and Spain. In addition to his native German, Dr. Muno speaks English, French, and Spanish.

Robert Hoppe is full professor of policy and knowledge at the Department of Science, Technology and Policy Studies, School of Management and Governance, University of Twente (Netherlands). His current research interests focus on practices of deliberative governance in an institutional environment of representative democracy, policymaking and policy analysis in transformational societies and polities, and comparative science-policy advisory architectures. In 2010 he published The Governance of Problems. Puzzling, Powering, and Participation (Policy Press, Bristol) and co-edited (with Hal Colebatch and Mirko Noordegraaf) Working for Policy (Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam). His most recent articles deal with post-nomal science (in Science, Technology and Human Values) and the role of international and national advisory institutes on global and national climate change policy ( in WIRE’s Climate Change). Hoppe serves on the advisory boards of Policy Studies Journal, Critical Policy Studies, Jaarboek Kennis en Samenleving, and Beleidsonderzoek Online.

Olli Hellmann is Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Waikato, Aotearoa New Zealand. He specialises in the politics of Asia-Pacific, and has published extensively on issues of democratic quality and governance. Recent publications include Stateness and Democracy in East Asia (Cambridge University Press, co-edited with Aurel Croissant), “State capacity and elections in the study of authoritarian regimes” (special issue of International Political Science Review, co-edited with Aurel Croissant), and “The historical origins of corruption in the developing world: a comparative analysis of East Asia” (Crime, Law and Social Change).

Kåre Hagen is director at The Centre for Welfare and Labour Research at Oslo Metropolitan University. He is a political scientist, and his fields of research are comparative welfare state policies, public sector reform and implications of European integration on EU member states. He has had positions at the Department for Political Science at the University of Oslo and at the Norwegian School of Management (BI). Hagen if frequently used by Norwegian Governments to prepare reports on public sector reform.

Claudia Matthes is a political scientist and director of the international MA programs at the Institute of Social Sciences at Humboldt University in Berlin. She earned her PhD at the Freie Universität Berlin in 1998 with a dissertation on the role of the Polish and Hungarian parliaments in democratization processes. Her main research areas include comparative government, regime transitions, social policies, EU integration and regional cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe, in particular in Poland, Hungary and the Baltic States.

Carlos Jalali is assistant professor at the University of Aveiro and researcher at the Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies Research Centre. He earned his doctorate in political science from the University of Oxford, having previously received an MSc in development economics (University of London) and a BA in philosophy, politics and economics (University of Oxford). He has published more than thirty articles and book chapters examining Portuguese political institutions and politics.

Dr. Andrea Wagner is an Assistant Professor at MacEwan University in Edmonton and a consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers, providing the European Commission with regular updates and analytical reports on Romania’s latest anti-corruption efforts. Dr. Wagner has worked for the United Nations Headquarters, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging. Her doctoral dissertation focused on corruption and rent-seeking in Romania, specifically on how liberalization and marketization of the state-planned economy have engendered new and more pernicious forms of corruption. She holds a BA in international economics with cum laude honors from Corvinus University. She also holds an MSc in economics and European studies with summa cum laude honors from Corvinus University and a PhD in Political Science and Political Economy from Carleton University.

Marianne Kneuer is professor for comparative politics and director of the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Hildesheim (Germany). From 1993 until 1999 she was a member of the planning staff of the Federal President of Germany, Roman Herzog. Before that, she worked as a journalist covering politics (1989–1993). Since 2007 she has been a member of the board of the German Society of Political Science, and served as president from 2011 to 2013. She has edited several books series and is co-editor of the Journal of Comparative Politics (Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft). Her main areas of research include comparative democratization and democracy studies, democracy promotion, comparative autocracy studies and European politics. Her area of expertise is on Central Eastern Europe and Southern Europe.

Miro Haček is professor at the Department of Political Science in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Centre for the Analysis of Administrative-Politicial Processes and Institutions (CAAPPI) in Ljubljana (Slovenia), where he runs undergraduate courses on political systems, public administration, comparative civil servants systems and comparative politics, as well as postgraduate courses on political and administrative management. In addition to having been a visiting lecturer at Hong Kong Baptist University (2005, 2007), South Dakota State University (2009, 2010) and at Hughes Hall in Cambridge (2001), he has published widely in Slovenian and English.

Nancy Y. Kim is a PhD Candidate and Researcher (Institute for Development and Human Security) at Ewha Womans University. She has a Masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. She is a mid-career development professional with over 10 years of experience in the field, including as Country Representative for The Asia Foundation in Lao PDR and Deputy Country Representative for The Asia Foundation in China. Her research interests include: sustainable development; ethics; welfare and wellbeing; social protection; and human security.

Dr. Mario Kölling is Professor at Department of Political Science at the Spanish National Distance Education University (UNED), and senior researcher of the Manuel Giménez Abad Foundation, Zaragoza. From 2011 to 2014 he was Garcia Pelayo Researcher at the Centro de Estudios Politicos y Constitucionales (CEPC) in Madrid. He holds a Ph.D from the University of Zaragoza. Mario Kölling has been a visiting researcher at the Centre for European Integration of the Otto-Suhr Institute for Political Science in Berlin, the University College Dublin, the Institute for European Studies of the Free University of Brussels and the European University Institute in Florence.

In his research he analyzes the negotiations on the EU Multiannual Financial Frameworks. He works and publishes also on issues related to federalism and national and sub-national parliaments in EU affairs.

Evangelia Petridou is Associate Professor in Political Science, affiliated with the Risk and Crisis Research Center at Mid Sweden University. Petridou’s research focuses on policy studies, with a specific theoretical interest in theories of the policy process, networks and entrepreneurial agency, while her empirical interests center on crisis and emergency management. She has published in journals such as Policy Studies Journal, European Policy Analysis, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, Politics and Policy, and Policy and Society. Petridou is co-editor of International Review of Public Policy (IRPP).

Klaus Armingeon is full professor for comparative and European politics and director at the Institute of Political Science in Bern (Switzerland). He has worked at several academic institutions, including the universities of Konstanz, Mannheim, Heidelberg (Germany), Duke University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (United States) and Innsbruck (Austria). His main publications focus on welfare state policy, political economy, industrial relations, trade unions and political parties in comparative perspective, with a special emphasis on Switzerland. His recent publications include a chapter on fiscal and economics policies in the Handbook of Swiss Politics (2014), and articles on the fiscal responses to the great recession (Governance 2012), the loss of trust in the European Union (European Union Politics 2014), and the decline of support for national democracy in the recent recession (European Journal of Political Research 2014).

Düzgün Arslantaş is Lecturer and Post-doctoral Researcher at the Cologne Center for Comparative Politics, University of Cologne. He was a doctoral and post-doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, and the University of Cologne, Cologne Center for Comparative Politics. He was Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in 2018. His research lies at the intersection of comparative politics and political economy. His publications have appeared in the Swiss Political Science Review, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, and Third World Quarterly.

Andreas Busch has been chair of comparative political science and political economy at the University of Göttingen since 2008. He studied political science, economics and public law at the Universities of Munich, Heidelberg and Oxford, and holds a PhD (1994) and a Habilitation (2002) from the University of Heidelberg. His research interests are in comparative regulatory policy, especially in banking and in internet censorship in liberal democracies. His recent publications include Banking Regulation and Globalization (Oxford University Press 2009) and Politik und die Regulierung von Information (co-edited with Jeanette Hofmann, Nomos Verlag 2012). He is a member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

Daniel Béland is Director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada and James McGill Professor in the Department of Political Science at McGill University. He has held visiting academic positions at Harvard University, the University of Bremen, the University of Nagoya, the University of Southern Denmark, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Professor Béland currently serves as Executive Editor of the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis and President of the Research Committee 19 (Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy) of the International Sociological Association. A student of social and fiscal policy, he has published more than 20 books and 160 peer-reviewed journal articles.