Tjitske Akkerman

Tjitske Akkerman studied political science at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. Her main fields of interest are (the history of ) political theory, theories of democracy and comparative political science. She published her dissertation about the French Enlightenment in 1992 ('Women's Vices, Public Benefits': Het Spinhuis) She wrote two textbooks about the history of democracy from classical Athens to the French Revolution. ( Democratie. De grondslagen van het moderne idee; Het Spinhuis, 2003;  De kwetsbare democratie. Sleutelteksten uit de politieke theorie; Aksant 2001)  With Siep Stuurman she edited a book about the history of feminist thought. (Perspectives on Feminist Political Thought in European History: Routledge, 1998)

Her recent research projects are about populism, political trust and comparative research of populist parties in Western-Europe, and about deliberative and associative democracy.  She published various articles about these topics ( Political Studies, Acta Politica, Journal of Political Ideologies) As a visiting fellow at the ANU/Canberra she studied deliberative designs in Australia. She was also involved in several policy projects of VROM, WRR and IPP.