Public Administration: Master in International Public Management and Public Policy

Sonja Balsem

Sonja Balsem has been working for the Erasmus University Rotterdam as administrator since 1978. First, as a secretary for the Political Science Department, and since 1984 for the Public Administration Department. In 1986, the PA Department started an exchange program with the Indiana University, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and later in 1990 the exchange program extended with European partners. Since that time, she has been the coordinator of the International Program of the Department and is in charge not only of student- and staff exchanges, but also in charge of the organizations of various international conferences. From 1 September 2006, she is a fulltime administrator of IMP.

Prof.dr Ko Colijn

Part-time senior lecturer at Erasmus University Rotterdam since 1989 and other educational colleges before. Area of interest and education: political science, in particular international relations: European integration, security and foreign policy, both institutionalized and non-institutionalized. He is consultant to various media and academic institutions, e.g. the European Commission and Dutch Scientific Research Council. Colijn has 25 years of experience as defense and international politics correspondent for the Dutch weekly 'Vrij Nederland'.

Dr Geske Dijkstra

Geske Dijkstra studied Sociology (MA) and Economics (MA) at the University of Groningen, and graduated in 1981 and 1983, respectively. For about a year (82-82) she worked as associate professor at the Sociological Institute of the University of Leiden. Then, after a successful application with WOTRO (NWO) she could start a PhD project on "Industrialization in a Mixed Economic Order, a System-Comparative study of the Industrialization Policy of Nicaragua", for which she worked and lived one year in Managua, Nicaragua. Within the programme of Public Administration, she is a member of the research group ‘Public Governance’ and within that of the group ‘Global Governance’.

Dr Menno Fenger

Dr H.J.M. Fenger studied Public Administration and Organizational Sciences at the Catholic University Nijmegen. He finished his PhD on the implementation of social policies in 2001. From 2000 – 2006 he worked as assistent professor at the Department of Public Administration, Erasmus University Rotterdam. In 2006, he was a visiting scholar at the Center for European Studies, Harvard University. From 2006 tot 2008 he was a senior policy advisor at the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. In 2008, he returned to the Department of Public Administration, Erasmus University.
In his research, he focuses on the implementation of social policies, and on processes of policy change in this policy domain. Moreover, he is interested in developments in the new EU-member states. He published in various Dutch and English journals and books.

Dr Markus Haverland

Dr Markus Haverland is Associate Professor in Political Science at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Erasmus University of Rotterdam. He has studied political science and public administration at the University of Konstanz. He took his doctorate at the University of Utrecht, and has been a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute (Florence), and a lecturer at the Universities of Nijmegen and Leiden. His research interests include public policy making in the European Union, the effects of the European Union on its member states, comparative politics and public policy, and the design of causal case studies.

Dr Frans K.M. van Nispen

Dr Frans van Nispen holds a MPA from the University of Leiden and a PhD in Political Sciences from Erasmus University Rotterdam. He has served for several years as a policy analyst for the Dutch government, before he returned to academia. He is nowadays associate professor of Public Administration at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Erasmus University of Rotterdam. He is now working on a comparative study about the way governments cope with fiscal stress and, more specifically, how the European member-states have dealt with a budget deficit.

Prof. dr Kees van Paridon

Kees van Paridon (1952, Leidschendam) studied Spatial Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam. From 1979 he worked as assistant professor in the economics department of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the same university. After getting his PhD in 1987, he worked till 1989 at the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB). From 1989 till 1999 he was a staff member at the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy. From 1992 till 2002 he was also extraordinary professor on German economic development and Dutch-German economic Relations, at VU University Amsterdam. In 1999 he was appointed as Professor of Economics at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Since 2005 he is chairman of the Department of Public Administration. He was visiting professor at MIT and at Wilhelms University Münster. He has been consultant for several ministries and municipalities, in the Netherlands and abroad. Central themes in his research are: Budgetary developments, Labor market and social security, Competitiveness, European integration, German economic development and Dutch-German economic relations.

Guy Peters

Guy Peters is professor in Public Administration at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Maurice Falk Professor of American Government at the University of Pittsburgh. He earned his PhD from Michigan State University in 1970 and has held positions at Emory University, the University of Delaware, and Tulane University. He has also received honorary doctorates from the University of Gothenberg and the University of Vaasa. Professor Peters’ ongoing adjunct positions include: Adjunct Professor at the School of Public Administration, University of Gothenburg; Senior Fellow at the Canadian Centre for Management Development (now the Canadian School of Governance); Honorary Professor at the City University of Hong Kong; Honorary Fellow at the Center for Public Management Studies, Catholic University of Leuven; and Honorary Professor at the Roskilde University Centre, Denmark. In the spring of 2009, he was appointed Distinguished Professor of Comparative Governance at Zeppelin Universität, Friedrichshafen, Germany. Professor Peters’ teaching and research focus on comparative public policy and administration as well as U.S. public administration. A selection of his recent and forthcoming publications includes: Debating Institutionalism (Manchester University Press, 2008), co-edited with Jon Pierre and Gerry Stoker; Mixes, Matches and Mistakes: New Public Management in the States of the Former Soviet Union (Budapest: LGI, 2009). His books The Politics of Bureaucracy (6^th edition, Routledge, 2009) and The Future of Governing (2^nd ed. University Press of Kansas) have been major works in the study of comparative public administration.;. Peters is also the founding co-editor of two journals, European Political Science Review and Governance: An International Journal of Political Administration and co-editor of a book series Political Analysis, in addition to serving on numerous editorial boards pertaining to public policy and administration.

Dr Peter W.A. Scholten

Dr Peter Scholten is assistant professor Public Policy & Politics. His research, publications and teaching focus on issues of comparative public policy, governance in multicultural societies, frame-reflective policy analysis, and the interaction between knowledge & policy. He obtained his master degree (with honours) in Public Administration & Public Policy at the University of Twente, and obtained his PhD with a study of research-policy relations in the domain of immigrant integration policies. Before joining the Erasmus University, Peter was assistant professor in the sociology of governance at the University of Twente, and involved in various projects on intercultural governance. Peter is senior member of the Netherlands Institute of Government (NIG) and member of the European network of excellence on Immigration, Integration and Social Cohesion in Europe (IMISCOE).

Dr Steven Van de Walle

Dr Steven Van de Walle is Associate Professor at the Department of Public Administration. Before joining Erasmus University, he was a Lecturer in Public Management at the University of Birmingham, and a visiting Senior Research Associate at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University. He studied political science and public administration and received his PhD from Catholic University Leuven (Belgium). His research interests include citizens’ perceptions of the public sector, public sector performance, services of general interest, satisfaction surveys, comparative public administration, governance indicators and quality management in government.