Toon Kerkhoff is Associate Professor of Public Administration. His work is characterised by a historical approach to core questions in public administration and the themes of corruption, integrity, public value(s) and public sector and civil service reform. He currently serves as educational director of the institute of Public Administration.

More information about Toon Kerkhoff

Toon Kerkhoff is Associate Professor of Public Administration. His work is characterised by a historical approach to core questions in public administration and the themes of corruption, integrity, public value(s) and public sector and civil service reform. He currently serves as educational director of the institute of Public Administration.

Background

Toon Kerkhoff (1978) took Master’s degrees both in History and in Philosophy of a Science from the University of Amsterdam (UvA). He specialised in social and political philosophy, philosophy of history and early modern European history. After a brief stint as an archivist for the Free University Amsterdam, he obtained his PhD at Leiden University in 2012. His thesis – winner of the annual Van Poelje prize – was about historical research into public morality and corruption in Dutch public administration between 1748 and 1813 as part of a wider project on the period 1650 – 1950.  

Toon co-founded the Center for Public Values and Ethics (CPVE) in 2013. This is an interdisciplinary, academic centre of expertise aiming to conduct and disseminate research on normative issues in the public sector, in particular the fulfillment of public office and the planning, making and executing of public policy, both in the Netherlands and abroad. In the CPVE research is combined with teaching and is disseminated, also with use of a Virtual Research Environment and a series of Public Ethics Talks. 

Toon publishes in various journals and is co-editor (with dr. Pieter Wagenaar and prof. Mark Rutgers) and co-author of 'Duizend jaar openbaar bestuur in Nederland: van patrimoniaal bestuur naar waarborgstaat' (Bussum, 2011), a Dutch-language book on the history of Dutch public administration. Most recently, he co-edited a Palgrave volume on the history of training and education of public servants. Toon actively participates in various conferences and research groups such as EGPA and co-convenes the NIG colloquium Administrative Ethics. He is a senior member of the Netherlands Institute of Government (NIG) and member of the Editorial Review Board of the journal Public Integrity and the editorial board of Bestuurskunde. 

Apart from research and teaching activities, Toon has fulfilled various administrative roles within the institute. Currently he is educational director and member of the institute board. 

Research projects in past and present include: 

• Integrity and corruption in the Netherlands (1945 – present) 
• The history of corruption and public morality in the Netherlands (1650 – 1950) 
• Advice to central government: state committees in the Netherlands (1815 – 2015) 
• The history of training and education of public servants (19th century – present) 
• Public servant craftmanship in past and present 

Teaching

Courses taught and/or developed by him for the Bsc. and Msc. programmes of the Institute of Public Administration include Administrative History; History and Philosophy of the Study of Public Administration; Philosophy of Science; Organisation Theory; Public Management; Political Administrative Relations; Public Values and Ethics and Research Design. Toon also annually supervises several Master's thesis students and is co-promotor of PhD students.  As staff member of the Leiden Dual PhD Center he is also involved in the guidance of external PhD candidates. He obtained his Basic Teaching Qualification in 2010 and his Senior Teaching Qualification in 2024. 

Key publications

• Kerkhoff A.D.N. & Moschopoulos D. (Eds.) (2024), The Education and Training of Public Servants: Systems and Practices from the Nineteenth Century to the Present. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 
• Kerkhoff A.D.N. (2024), Ambtelijk vakmanschap in de Nederlandse bestuurskunde. Een historisch perspectief. In: Dijkstra G.S.A. Raadschelders J.C.N. Berg C.F. van den (Ed.), Geschriften over overheid en ambtelijk apparaat, als je begrijpt wat ik bedoel…: Liber Amicorum Frits van der Meer. Publicatiereeks overheid & arbeid no. 58. Den Haag: Stichting CAOP. 89-107. 
• Kerkhoff A.D.N. (2023), Benoemingen, nevenfuncties en integriteit van bestuur in de Nederlandse Trias Politica: een literatuuroverzicht van theorie en empirie. Den Haag: Universiteit Leiden / Ministerie Algemene Zaken. 
• Kerkhoff A.D.N. & Overeem P. (2018), In Opspraak: Leren van Integriteitskwesties (Den Haag: CAOP). 
• Kerkhoff A.D.N. & Wagenaar F.P. (2016), History, public ethics and the anti-corruption industry. In: Lawton A., Wal Z.. van der, Huberts L. (Eds.) Ethics in Public Policy and Management. A Global Research Companion. London & New York: Routledge. pp. 69-86 
• Meer F.M. van der, Dijkstra G.S.A. & Kerkhoff A.D.N. (2016), The Dutch decentralized unitary state and its effects on civil service systems in the period of the Night Watch, Welfare and Enabling States 1814 – 2016, 1(1): 138-154. 
• Kerkhoff A. D. N. & Martina J. (2015), Advies aan de regering: staatscommissies in Nederland tussen 1814 en 1970, Beleid en Maatschappij 42(2): 79-101. 
• Kerkhoff, A.D.N. (2014), “Early Modern Developments in Dutch Public Administration: Patriot and Batavian Authors on Public Morality (1770s – 1813)”, in: Administrative Theory and Praxis 36 (1), 73-94. 
• Kerkhoff, A.D.N. (2013), Hidden Morals, Explicit Scandals. Public Values and Political Corruption in the Netherlands (1748 – 1813). PhD Dissertation. Leiden 2013: Leiden University. 
• Kerkhoff, A.D.N., Kroeze, D.B.R. & Wagenaar, F.P (2013), “Corruption and the rise of modern politics in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: a comparison between France, The Netherlands, Germany and England”, in: Kroeze, D.B.R., Kerkhoff, A.D.N. & Corni, G. (Eds.), Corruption and the rise of modern politics in Europe. Journal of Modern European History 11 (1), 19-30 
• Kerkhoff A.D.N. (2011), Organizational Reform and Changing Ethics in Public Administration: A Case Study on 18th Century Dutch Tax Collecting, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 21: 117-135. 
• Wagenaar, F.P., Kerkhoff, A.D.N. & Rutgers, M.R. (red.), Duizend jaar openbaar bestuur in Nederland: Van patrimoniaal bestuur naar waarborgstaat [A thousand years of Public Administration in the Netherlands: from Patrimonial Administration to an Enabling State](Bussum 2011) 

Grants and Awards

• Winner Van Poelje Prize 2013

Activities