The Department of Political Science at LUISS invites applications for five fully-funded PhD scholarships to commence PhD studies in the academic year 2020/2021. The PhD program is in English, has a duration of four years and includes coursework and training in research methods in the first year.Supervision will be mainly provided by Professors members of the Academic Board. The program also facilitates exchanges with partner universities abroad and provides additional financial support to enable such study periods and field work. The Department of Political Science has excellence in a number of...

The recent presidential elections in Poland have seen the unexpected victory of Andrzej Duda, candidate of the conservative right. However, Mikołaj Cześnik from SWPS Warsaw (University of Social Sciences and Humanities) reveals how Duda and its PiS (Law and Justice) party, expected to win the parliamentary elections in the next fall, will likely keep Poland's pro-EU stances mostly unchanged, and perhaps even promote economic measures aimed at more equality. Watch the full interview.  

The decision by Theresa May to call a snap election has gone against her. Despite remaining the largest party in Westminster, the Conservatives have fallen short of an absolute majority of seats, and a hung Parliament is the outcome of this election. Jeremy Corbyn has brought the Labour Party to 40% of the votes, the largest result since 2001. In a context characterised by the highest turnout since 1997 (69%), a massive shift back towards a two-party system has occurred: the UKIP has collapsed, the SNP has stepped back, and the Liberal Democrats have not bounced back after the...

Dr. Alistair Clark, Newcastle University E: Alistair.clark@ncl.ac.uk T: @ClarkAlistairJ In my earlier blog for CISE on the UK’s 2015 general election, I noted how uncertain the polls were, with none of the two main British parties – Conservative or Labour - able to make a decisive break prior to polling day. I ended by suggesting that there was likely to be an investigation into the polling industry after election day. One of those predictions came true. Unfortunately for the reputation of political science predictions, it was that there will be an inquiry into the performance of the polling industry. Expectations were of a hung...

Emmanuel Macron’s presidential majority – consisting of his movement La République En Marche (LREM) and centrist party Modem – has largely win the second round of the legislative elections on June 18, although with a smaller margin than predicted after the first round. LREM on its own has obtained the absolute majority in the lower house with 308 seats out of 577. Mainstream parties of the left and the right realized some of the worst electoral performances in parliamentary elections: the Parti Socialiste (PS) hits a record low, with only 30 MPs, and making a parliamentary group of a...