Bernard Steunenberg conducts research on European politics and policymaking, including the relationship between the Union and its Member States on the transposition and implementation of European policy. In his work, he uses perspectives from game theory, deliberative theory, public choice and analytical politics.

More information about Bernard Steunenberg

Bernard Steunenberg is Professor of Public Administration at Leiden University since 1 September 1999. He conducts research on European politics and policymaking, including the relationship between the Union and its Member States on the transposition and implementation of European policy. Recently, he also writes about the impact of digitalization on public policy and policymaking. In his work, he uses perspectives from game theory, deliberative theory, public choice and analytical politics. In addition, he regularly organizes national and international discussions, on the EU as well as on the possibilities and challenges of data-driven policymaking.

Bernard Steunenberg received a BA (1979) and a MA (1983) in Public Administration from the University of Twente. In 1989 he received his PhD also from the University of Twente. He was Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics, University of Twente (1986-94), Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Netherlands Institute of Governance (NIG) (1994-99), and Associate Professor of Public Finance at the Faculty of Public Administration and Public Policy, University of Twente (1994-99). He has been a visiting scholar at various universities, including Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow at the Political Science Department of the European University Institute in Florence (2006-7). As the Jean Monnet Ad Personam Chair in European Politics (2009-14) he established the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence at Leiden University. 

At Leiden University Bernard Steunenberg is Scientific Director of the Institute of Public Administration (since 2018). He was also Director in 2001-2004 and 2008-2011. In 2012-2015 he was vice-dean of Faculty Campus The Hague.  

Education

Bernard Steunenberg taught a range of courses on politics, public administration and the EU in various programs at Leiden University. He is teaching the courses Decision-Making and Rational Choice (BA-3), and EU Policymaking and Implementation (MA Public Administration). He runs a successful and prize-winning MOOC on ‘European Policy and Implementation’ at the Coursera platform. He has been a guest lecturer in several programmes.

Editor

Bernard Steunenberg is the founder and a general editor of the open access journal Research and Politics. The journal started publishing papers in 2014 and is already a well-cited journal especially in social media.

Research Projects 

Research on EU decision-making
Central to this work are the interaction between political actors, their interests and the formal and informal structures of the decision-making process. Bernard Steunenberg focuses on legislative procedures within the EU and the balance of power between the main European institutions. This work includes using methods form 'data science' to explore the functioning of EU legislative decision-making.

Research on coordination and implementation of EU policy
While policy formulation mainly involves coordination and harmonization, policy implementation mainly requires differentiation. In his work, Bernard Steunenberg examines how this consideration takes place, examining how domestic actors influence policy formulation but also the implementation of European policy. Implementation involves not only actors at the national level, but also at the level of local or regional authorities. He is currently working on a number of specific files, including air quality, secondment and state aid.

Research on the popular acceptance of the EU
Linked to the MAXCAP research project, Steunenberg focuses on national discourses regarding important European issues. Recently, research is done on national discourses regarding enlargement and European integration in various countries. These projects explore how citizens evaluate and appreciate European integration, which is important to discussions about the legitimacy of the EU

Research on policymaking in the digital era
Motivated by the increasing digitalization of society and government, Bernard Steunenberg is interested what this entails for policy and policymaking. Especially, the possibilities of using more data in making and implementing policy may affect policy, the way policymaking is organized and the structures within which policy is implemented. Will the availability of more and new data lead to a better and more problem-oriented approach? This is mainly due to the possibilities that oranisations offer to policy learning. 

The data used for several research projects is available at the Harvard Dataverse.

Publications