Admission Requirements
Participation in the BAP is only permitted if you passed the first year of IRO and completed at least 40 EC of the second year, including the courses Academic Skills: Research Design, Statistics II and Qualitative Research Methods.
Please note: For students who started their IRO programme before 1 September 2022 the admission requirements of 2023-2024 are still applicable: (a) first year, (b) 40 EC from year 2, incl (c) Research Methods in Political Science (10 EC) and (d) Academic Skills: Research Design (5 EC).
Transition regulations
If a student did not complete Research Methods in Political Science (10 EC) in 2022-2023 or earlier, they should complete Research Methods in Political Science (5 EC, year 1) and Qualitative Research Methods (5 EC, year 2).
Bachelor Project Information meeting
Semester II: The information session will be offered in block 2, TBA 2025 ONLINE. Students will receive the invitation by mail from the SSC.
Registration for Bachelor Project
Semester II: The information will be available in November 2024.
Should you have questions regarding the registration, please email the SSC via ssc@leiden.edu.
Language
The thesis of the Bachelor Project will be written in English.
If you want to write your thesis in Dutch please consult your BAP teacher in advance.
Description
Goal 1: Learning to apply concepts, theories and methods in a research project that fits within a framework that has been formulated by the teacher in advance;
Goal 2: Conducting, and reporting on, a limited empirical or literature study.
Content: The bachelor project is a course that offers substantive instruction, followed by a research part within which students carry out an individual study. Various projects are offered that are structured around different themes. Students first follow substantive instruction for a number of weeks in which they deepen their knowledge of a specific subject within a subfield of political science. After that, students learn to formulate a research question, to design research to answer that question, to conduct their own research, and to report correctly and clearly on that research.
The final report - the Bachelor's thesis - completes the Bachelor's degree in Political Science. The thesis is an individual final paper based at least partly on the student’s own, original research.
Mode of Instruction
Workgroup meetings, walk-in meetings, library instruction, and above all self-study.
Library Instruction
On Brightspace you will find more information on the digital module 'Library instruction'.
Study materials
Halperin, S. & Heath, O. (2017) 'Political research: Methods and practical skills' - Oxford University Press, is assumed to be known. The core literature can be found on the Brightspace page of the Bachelor's Project. Further information about the bachelor project and the subprojects will also be available there.
Assessment Method
Students either pass or fail the entire BAP (16 weeks) worth 20 ECTS.
The assignments made in the first, substantive part of the BAP will jointly generate a first partial grade. This grade counts for 40% of the final BAP grade. It is rounded to one decimal. Obtaining a sufficient grade for this part of the BAP is not a necessary condition for passing the course.
The full thesis written in the second, thesis-specific part of the BAP will generate a second partial grade. This counts for 60% of the final BAP grade. It is rounded to whole and half numbers and passed with a 5,5 or higher. Obtaining a sufficient grade for this part of the BAP is a necessary condition for passing the course. This means that a (sufficiently high) partial grade for the second part of the BAP can compensate an insufficient partial grade for the first part of the BAP.
The final grade is the weighted average of both partial grades. In order to pass the entire BAP (20 ECTS), the final grade must be sufficient (i.e. at least 5,5) and, as stated above, the grade for the full thesis must be sufficient (i.e. at least 5,5) as well.
Concerning retakes:
Since the first, substantive part of the BAP counts for less than 50% towards the final grade, students who obtain an insufficient partial grade for that part do not have the right to a retake.
Since the full thesis written in the second, thesis-specific part of the BAP counts for 50% or more towards the final grade, students who obtain an insufficient partial grade for their thesis do have the right to a retake.
Students who obtain a sufficient partial grade for the full thesis written in the second, thesis-specific part of the BAP also have the right to a retake, unless they passed the entire BAP on their first attempt (which means both the final grade and the partial grade for the thesis obtained by them are sufficient).
Students failing the course but having received a sufficient grade for one of the two parts of the course are allowed to take the same BAP next academic year – provided that it is still offered and has not been changed fundamentally – but may skip that part of the course for which they received the sufficient grade. They can, so to speak, “take their sufficient partial grade to next academic year”.
Students failing the course and having received an insufficient grade for both parts of the course have to start all over again next academic year.
Students can follow only 1 BAP per academic year.
Final product:
The thesis. It should be between 7,000-8,000 words. Note that this is the actual required length of the thesis and not 7,000-8,000 plus/minus 10%. A thesis that contains less than 7,000 or more than 8,000 words will not be graded (and so will be failed straightaway). Regarding the word count: Everything from introduction to conclusion counts (as picked up by the count in MS Word). The following elements do not count: front page, abstract, table of contents and list of references. Concerning the abstract and table of contents: these are optional.
Deadlines:
Deadline first chance May 23, 17:00 hrs.
Students who get an insufficient grade for their bachelor thesis – and so fail the entire BAP – have the right to improve their thesis and submit it for a second time. They do so on the basis of the feedback given by the supervisor during a feedback meeting. Note, however, that students are not entitled to any further supervision. The submission deadlines for the second chance are:
Deadline retake: July 9, 17:00 hrs.
There are two important caveats to this:
Students do not have the right to submit their thesis for a second time if their first attempt resulted in a sufficient grade.
Students do not have the right to submit their thesis as part of the second chance if they did not submit a completed version of their thesis during the first chance.
Bachelor Project themes:
Semester II
106 - TBA (Unknown)
107 - Civil Wars in Theory and Practice (Dr. J. Schulhofer-Wohl)
Description: This course explores the dynamics of civil wars. It draws on literature in political science and other fields in the social sciences to understand how civil wars are conducted. We begin by considering how to define civil war and whether there are different types of wars. We then analyze the recruitment of fighters (whether by government armed forces or rebel groups) and other forms of individual participation in conflict; the origins and effects of international connections and inputs to civil wars; forms of cooperation between armed groups; and military competition between armed rivals, including the role of violence against civilians. Readings cover conflicts around the world, from wars in the aftermath of the Second World War to contemporary Syria
Research Methods for the thesis: Students can use quantitative methods or qualitative methods in the thesis in this BAP (or a mixed-methods design). Since the course focuses exclusively on positivist research on civil war in the social sciences, students should not take this BAP if they want to write a thesis from a critical theory perspective or using philosophical research methods. In addition, the course emphasizes the need for methods to be linked to the research question. Students who want to write a thesis using content analysis or discourse analysis simply because these are the methods that they are most familiar with are strong discouraged from taking this BAP.
BEFORE the first meeting, please read:
O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. “How to Tell a True War Story,” pp.67-80. [Brightspace]
Schulhofer-Wohl, Jonah. 2018. “Syria, Productive Antinomy, and the Study of Civil War.” Perspectives on Politics 16(4):1085–91.
Sambanis, Nicholas. 2004. “What is Civil War? Conceptual and Empirical Complexities of an Operational Definition.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 48(6):814-58.
Kalyvas, Stathis N. The Logic of Violence in Civil War. New York: Cambridge University Press. Ch. 1, “Concepts,” pp.16-31.
108 - China and World Politics - (Dr. G. van der Zwan)
109 - Environmentalisms of the Right - (Dr. R. Ploof)
Environmentalism is now often assumed to be an issue of the political left and center. Yet this has not always been the case in the past, nor is it likely to be in the future. How have those on the right historically conceptualized and taken up environmental concerns? How, in the context of climate change, might they do so once again?
Rooted in political theory, this course examines the conceptual foundations of right environmentalisms. It explores how political philosophers – like Heidegger on the one hand and Horkheimer and Adorno on the other – have both embraced and challenged rightist approaches to nature, the environment, and humanity’s relationship to the material world. Emphasizing the interplay between theory and practice, the course also looks at how these ideas have intersected with and informed far-right political action.
This BAP is amenable to a variety of qualitative methodological approaches, however explicit methods guidance will focus on political theoretical analysis. Students wishing to use a different qualitative method in their thesis should be prepared to draw on prior methods training. Use of quantitative methods is not permitted.
Finally, please note that this BAP allocates a non-trivial portion of the part one grade to active in-class participation and will not be a good fit for students who do not wish to engage in seminar-wide discussion.
110 - European Health Policies (Dr. E. van Reuler)
Health policy frequently makes the headlines and spending on health care counts for around ten per cent of the GDP in many European countries nowadays. In these countries, health governance is a complex field in which national, regional and local governments as well as various other organisations often interact to shape the services delivered.
Moreover, the role of the European Union in health has been diversified and extended over the past decades. One can think of, for example, policy programmes such as the Health in all Policies programme that was developed in the early 2000s, disease specific programmes that are often initiated by countries during their EU presidency, and more recently - and most ambitiously - the European Health Union initiative, which emerged as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This Bachelor Project (BAP) investigates health policy from a European perspective. For the purpose of this BAP, health is defined broadly: from public health to hospital care and from mental health care to nursing homes. The European perspective entails cross-country comparisons as well as the European Union’s engagement with health.
During the substantive part of this BAP (block 3), we start exploring the foundations of health policy from a comparative perspective. This means getting familiar with many new terms as well as the major ways in which health care systems are organised. Afterwards, we move on to the role of the European Union and the impact of its health initiatives on health policies in the member states.
In block 4, students research a health policy related question of their choice. A European perspective is expected to be present, but if good methodological reasons exist comparisons with non-European cases are allowed. We work with qualitative methods, such as (comparative) case studies and content analysis. A mixed methods approach is also an option if it suits the research question.
111 - Foreign Policy in Times of American Decline (Dr. C. van de Wetering)
This course focuses on US foreign policy-making after 9/11. With the subsequent presidencies from Bush jr. to Trump, discussions have emerged about the primacy of the US and its foreign policy conduct. These discussions became particularly salient under the Trump and Biden presidencies as the US is facing several challenges domestically and internationally. That said, the debate on US decline has been raging for decades.
What this course then aims to tackle is how students can perform a foreign policy analysis in light of the manifold agents and structures that can be taken into account. In addition, it asks what the role of the US is in global affairs and it addresses a few possible crises that have been facing the US, including the challenges of other major powers and the constraints of presidential power. It throws up various questions: What are the implications of these crises or particular events for US foreign policy-making toward other countries? How are policies enabling further retraction of the US globally? In general, what actors play a large role in shaping the policy course and when are foreign policy agents able to enact change?
In terms of research methods, the course focuses on qualitative methods, ranging from empirical research methods to discourse analysis and critical theory. With regard to the reading, the course will make use of a selection of academic articles and chapters.
Course aims:
To reflect on academic debates regarding US decline in order to evaluate the role of the US in global affairs.
To gain an understanding of the major theories and approaches to analyze the foreign policy process and to critically assess and apply these.
112 - TBA (Unknown)
113 - International Law and the Life and Death of States (Y.Y. Zhu)
Statehood is the most fundamental of all international legal institutions; yet the laws surrounding the birth and, more rarely, the death of states remain surprisingly muddled. Indeed, there is today no generally accepted legal framework governing the death of states, even though global warming will wipe off island states in the Pacific within the next few decades. Meanwhile, statehood is becoming increasingly detached from states’ capacity to actually govern their territories, and the last decades have seen the emergence of the ‘failed states’ paradigm, zombie states that retain full legal personality but who lack the capacity of performing the most basic of state functions.
This BAP will examine the international law governing the birth and death of states, both from a legal/doctrinal point of view and from a normative one. In Block III, you will study the existing body of law in this area in a seminar format, and critically assess the existing legal state of affairs. At the end of Block II and during Block IV, you will develop your own research question and pursue a research project related to the topic, under individualized supervision.
Methodologically, this BAP will focus on qualitative methods, and in particular legal analysis, both of the “black letter law” sort and the more normative approach. The course readings will include complex legal documents, reflecting the nature of the subject.
114 - International Law, Use of Force, and Protection of Human Rights (Dr. M. Kinacioglú)
This thesis seminar is designed to support bachelor students in conceptualizing, structuring and writing their projects on topics related to the law of the use of force in international relations, and the instruments and institutions for protection of human rights. It provides for key conceptual foundations of resort to force and human rights, and introduces main theoretical debates with special emphasis on questions related to the current practice, legitimacy and efficiency. The seminar also includes methodological aspects with a focus on normative research design. It invites project proposals that involve several aspects, diverse issues and current debates regarding the use of force and human rights.
115 - Justice and Equality in a Globalised World (Dr. M. Verschoor)
In January 2022, Oxfam reported that during the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic the ten richest men on earth more than doubled their wealth, whereas 99 percent of people worldwide saw their income fall, and 160 million were forced into poverty. To most readers, this probably sounds like an instance of blatant injustice. But why exactly would inequalities like this be unjust? In order to answer this question, we have to turn to political philosophy.
Political philosophers have long occupied themselves with the question what people owe to each other. In response to this question, different thinkers have developed different views of justice and equality. Liberal egalitarians suggest that all members of society ought to enjoy equal basic liberties, while inequalities in income and wealth are allowed under particular conditions. Libertarians argue that such inequalities do not have to be unjust as long as they are the result of voluntary transactions between free individuals. Luck egalitarians take it that it is only unjust when one person is worse off than another as a result of bad luck, rather than her own choices. Relational egalitarians point out that equality is ultimately not about how certain goods are distributed among people, but about the way in which people relate to one another: what matters is whether they enjoy equal standing or respect. This brings into focus not just material inequalities, but also problems of domination and oppression.
Each of the views mentioned above yields another answer to the question what we owe to one another. But even if we settle on an answer to this question, there remains a further question to be asked, namely: To whom do we owe this? For a long time, political philosophers simply took it for granted that the notions of justice and equality apply to the domestic sphere only. If justice requires that individuals be treated as equals in some respect, then surely, many assumed uncritically, the scope of this requirement is limited to the domestic context. According to this statist view, justice is something co-nationals, i.e. citizens belonging to the same state, owe to each other. It is not something co-nationals owe to foreigners.
Recently, however, political philosophers have started to wonder whether the notion of justice could – and indeed should – also be invoked at the international, and perhaps even global, level. They raise this question because they have come to realise that the assumption of the statist view – the idea of a world divided into independent states – is a fantasy. Even if there ever existed a world of independent states, then, or so they claim, it certainly no longer exists nowadays. Instead, we live in an age of globalisation; an age in which states and individuals are becoming increasingly interdependent. During the last fifty years we witnessed an enormous increase in transboundary problems, such as climate change, economic crises, immigration flows, epidemics, terrorism, and other violent political conflicts.
This has led many political philosophers to reject the statist view of justice and instead embrace a cosmopolitan view. Given that human beings affect each other’s lives on an unprecedented scale, it makes no sense to limit the scope of justice to the domestic sphere of a set of independent states. Instead, principles of justice ought to be applied globally. Others, however, think that the effects of globalisation are exaggerated or otherwise morally insignificant and therefore do not change the scope of justice. Consequently, they remain committed to their statist view.
In this bachelor project students explore both the content and the scope of justice and equality. In the first, substantive part of the project (weeks 1-6), students become familiar with the most influential accounts of justice and equality in contemporary political philosophy (weeks 1-3), and the main statist and cosmopolitan views as well as various aspects of the academic debate on the scope of justice in a globalised world (weeks 4-6). In the second, thesis-specific part (weeks 7-16), students develop a philosophical perspective connected to one of the topics discussed in the first phase of the project, be it with respect to the content of justice and equality (weeks 1-3), or the scope of these values in a globalised world (weeks 4-6).
116 - Readings in the History of Political Thought (Dr. M. Longo)
This Bachelor Project engages close, critical reading of texts in the history of political thought, focusing on the modern era (roughly 16th – 20th century). This period oversaw huge political and economic changes – the rise of the modern state, liberalism, capitalism – and spawned equally significant contributions to political philosophy. Debates in this period regarded themes such as sovereignty, justice, democracy, obedience, and freedom – all of which remain pressing today.
This year the BAP will take an in-depth look at one of the most important authors within this varied canon – Hannah Arendt. Class will center on a close reading of her seminal work of political philosophy, The Human Condition; it was also look at secondary literature that engages critically with her legacy. During class we will reason through and debate a wide range of subjects that emerge from this text, including the intertwining of politics and morality, the relationship between citizen and state, and the role of theology in the secular era.
For their final theses, students will be asked to draw on this material to develop their own unique reading of the primary source material and use it to contribute to contemporary debates in the field.
Block III will be primarily substantive, working through the texts and articles in careful detail. By the end of the block, students will have developed skills necessary to critically evaluate primary sources and substantiate arguments in the field. There will be two written assignments – one focused on explicating primary sources; the second based on analyzing debates within the secondary literature. In Block IV, students will work independently to create their own arguments, drawing upon their own reading of the primary source material, to answer a question and advance a debate of their choosing. This term will involve extensive student-teacher dialogue, as well as group discussions, to help bring the projects to fruition.
The syllabus will be distributed before the first meeting of class. Because this is a reading intensive course, it makes sense to get a head start on some of the readings beforehand.
117 - TBA (Unknown)
118 - Global Migration (Dr. K. Natter)
Why do people move? How do they decide where to go? Does development lead to more or less migration? And what is the role of migration policies, climate change, conflict or education in shaping human mobility? In this bachelor project, we will explore major trends, drivers and dynamics of international migration through historical and contemporary perspectives from around the globe.
In the first part of the bachelor seminar, you will get acquainted with the state-of-the-art theories and empirical evidence on migration drivers, based on case studies, quantitative and qualitative comparative research. You will discover and critically interrogate the core literature and academic debates on the political, economic and societal forces that structure migration patterns around the globe. Seminars will not cover issues related to the consequences of migration for origin or destination societies, such as integration or(trans)national identities, which are equally important, but beyond the framework of this bachelor project.
At the end of part 1, you will have gained foundational theoretical and empirical knowledge about the trends, drivers and dynamics structuring global migration and have trained your eye for what a good research design looks like. You will also be able to critically reflect about common ways of categorizing, framing and analysing migration, which will allow you to interrogate some of the deeply rooted assumptions that dominate the heated political and popular narratives on migration.
In the second part of the bachelor project, you will work on your individual research project, mobilizing the theoretical frameworks and topics discussed in the seminars to investigate migration dynamics and its drivers in one particular case or two-case comparison. The goal is to develop your own research question, review relevant literature and conduct a simple, yet original empirical analysis. I particularly encourage thesis projects that have a comparative angle and/or look at migration dynamics outside of the ‘Global North’.
In terms of methods, this seminar will focus on case study and comparative research designs using qualitative or simple mixed method designs. This includes content analysis, discourse analysis, process tracing and basic descriptive analyses of migration and survey data. It will not be possible to write a thesis using advanced statistical analyses or data science. While it is not necessary to have a concrete research question before the start of the bachelor project, I will ask you early on in the course to think about potential cases or aspects of migration that you are particularly interested in, as well as about the type of material you would like to use.
Feel free to contact me ahead in time if you are unsure whether your thesis idea fits within this bachelor project.
119 - TBA (Unknown)
120 - Women's Represenation (Dr. D. Davila Gordillo)
This Bachelor Project Seminar explores the dynamics of women's political representation and power in national and international contexts. While the number of women in legislatures and executive positions has increased in recent decades, women's political careers often remain short-lived. Many women serve only a single term, facing structural and cultural barriers that hinder their entry, longevity, and influence in politics. As a result, women often remain “constant newcomers” to political office, struggling to gain and sustain political presence.
In this seminar, we will examine the institutional, social, and political obstacles that shape women’s participation in political life. We begin with theories of descriptive and substantive representation, then move to explore political ambition, candidate emergence, and the role of political parties in shaping access to power. We will also study gender quota laws, violence against women in politics, and the broader personal and professional costs of political engagement. Finally, we will assess what happens after women attain power: how they govern, how their presence affects policymaking, and how women influence politics from outside institutions through social movements and civil society.
Students will conduct independent research related to women's political participation, drawing on theoretical and empirical readings and guided by the central question: What explains women’s political presence and impact across different political systems and global contexts?