Paul Pennings, born in Rosmalen, the Netherlands, in 1960. Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam. Senior Lecturer in Political Methodology at the VU University, Amsterdam.
Fellow (1 September 1995 – 30 June 1996)
Within the research theme group “Political Parties and the Quality of Democracy”, I completed extensive empirical data analyses on factors that shaped (the consequences of ) party behaviour in 17 OECD countries during the post war period. Considerable progress has been made on all research activities that I had planned at the beginning of my stay. NIAS offered sufficient concentrated and uninterrupted time to finish the work I had planned. Some of the results are reported in research papers, most notably in the three papers that the research group presented during the joint sessions of the European Consortium of Political Research (Oslo, 29 March – 3 April 1996).
Apart from the research activities that are directly linked to the research group, progress has also been made on other projects. First of all, I am preparing an edited volume (with Professor J.E. Lane) on “Comparing Party System Change”. The main parts of this book have been completed during my stay at NIAS. Additionally, the foundation has been laid for a textbook on “Methods and Statistics in Political Science” (with J. Keman and J. Kleinnijenhuis).
During my stay at NIAS I completed the drafts for three chapters in this book that aims to integrate and present our empirical knowledge on political parties and governments in post war democracies in such a way that it becomes accessible for students in political science.