School of Public Affairs

Organisational unit: Research School

Organisation profile

Leuphana School of Public Affairs is the academic and professional home to 1.000 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral students and 31 professors. 30 research associates and 17 professional staff members are working for us.

The main themes of the school are reflected in its study programs: The School of Public Affairs is currently responsible for three Majors and four Minors at Leuphana College, five Master’s programmes and five Doctoral research groups at Leuphana Graduate School as well as five continuing education Master's programmes at Leuphana Professional School. As a novelty in Germany, the Master of Law offers students the opportunity to obtain both a Master's degree in law (LL.M.) as well as the state law examination. With its emphasis on "Law in Context", this model degree programme transcends a classic-dogmatic perspective of jurisprudence by presenting the relevant contents from civil law, public law and criminal law against the backdrop of current societal challenges and transformations. 

Main research areas

Leuphana School of Public Affairs brings together the disciplines of Political Science, Law, and Economics under one roof. With 31 professorships, it establishes an innovative profile in Germany on issues of public affairs, gaining both national and international visibility and academic reputation.

The School conducts research on the major transformations of our time and thus continues to develop its existing research agenda on the future of democracy, evidence-based political decision-making and law in the context of societal transformation. In an interdisciplinary collaborative endeavour, the three subjects will, among other things, answer pressing questions about

  • the legitimacy and performance of democracies, whose integrative power is under threat, especially in light of recent upheavals in politics and society,
  • the role of the state with regard to the relationship between private-law and public-law regulation,
  • the justification of governmental intervention into market processes and their ex-post evaluation.
  1. Published

    Political Institutions and Political Elites in Changing Liberal-Democracies

    Vercesi, M., 2020, Lüneburg: Leuphana Universität Lüneburg. 282 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologiesPost-doctoral dissertations

  2. Published

    Political institutions and policy performance: a comparative analysis of Central and Eastern Europe

    Jahn, D. & Müller-Rommel, F., 04.2010, In: Journal of Public Policy. 30, 1, p. 23-44 22 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  3. Published

    Political expenditure cycles and election outcomes: Evidence from disaggregation of public expenditures by economic functions

    Enkelmann, S. & Leibrecht, M., 01.10.2013, In: Economics Letters. 121, 1, p. 128-132 5 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  4. Published

    Political elites

    Blondel, J. & Müller-Rommel, F., 02.09.2009, The Oxford handbook of political behavior. Dalton, R. J., Klingemann, H.-D. & Goodin, R. E. (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 818-832 15 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksChapterpeer-review

  5. Published

    Political Culture Paradigm

    Welzel, C. P. (Contributor), 08.2016, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. R. Thompson, W. (ed.). 1 ed. New York / USA: Oxford University Press, Vol. 1. 26 p. (Oxford Research Encyclopedias).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksArticles for encyclopediaResearch

  6. Published

    Political Culture and Value Change

    Dalton, R. & Welzel, C., 2014, The Civic Culture Transformed: From Allegiant to Assertive Citizens. Dalton, R. & Welzel, C. (eds.). 1. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 1-16 16 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksChapterpeer-review

  7. Published

    Political culture and democracy

    Inglehart, R. & Welzel, C., 01.01.2019, New Directions in Comparative Politics, Third Edition. Munck, G. L. (ed.). 3 ed. Taylor and Francis Inc., p. 141-164 24 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksChapterpeer-review

  8. Published

    Political Culture

    Welzel, C. & Inglehart, R., 2014, Comparative Politics. Caramani, D. (ed.). 3 ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 284-301 18 p. 17

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearchpeer-review

  9. Published

    Political culture

    Welzel, C. P. & Inglehart, R., 2011, Comparative politics. Caramani, D. (ed.). Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford University Press, p. 311-329 19 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearchpeer-review

  10. Published

    Political Careers of Ministers and Prime Ministers

    Müller-Rommel, F., Kroeber, C. & Vercesi, M., 30.07.2020, The Oxford Handbook of Political Executives. Andeweg, R. B., Elgie, R., Helms, L., Kaarbo, J. & Müller-Rommel, F. (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 229-250 22 p. (Oxford Handbooks)(Oxford handbooks online / Political Science).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksChapterpeer-review