Royal accolade for outgoing ECPR Chair Rudy Andeweg

Former ECPR Chair Rudy Andeweg, whose three-year Chair-ship came to an end on 1 May, has this spring also retired from his longstanding professorship in Empirical Political Science at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.

To mark the occasion, on 18 May Rudy delivered his farewell lecture in the historic Academiegebouw of Leiden University, after which a special surprise awaited him.

The mayor of Leiden, Henri Lenferink, joined Rudy at the lectern to present him with a royal honour: Officer in the Order of Orange Nassau – a chivalric order conferred by the Kingdom of the Netherlands for those who have earned ‘special merits for society’.

Speaking to ECPR on receipt of his great accolade, Rudy told us:

‘I was taken completely by surprise when, after my valedictory lecture at Leiden University, the Mayor entered the hall to announce that I was made an Officer in the Order of Orange Nassau. I am delighted of course, even more so because my involvement with ECPR was explicitly mentioned as one of the reasons for giving me this royal distinction.’

All of us at ECPR are naturally delighted to hear of this well-deserved honour – and we wish Rudy a long and happy retirement. Gefeliciteerd, Rudy!

About Rudy Andeweg

Rudy, himself a Leiden native, studied political science at Leiden University and at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He received his PhD from Leiden University in 1982 with his dissertation Dutch Voters Adrift; on explanations of electoral change (1963─1977). 

Rudy has had considerable influence on Dutch and international political science, publishing widely throughout his long career on such topics as political psychology, voting behaviour, political elites, political leadership, comparative politics and political institutions. His book with Galen A. Irwin, Governance and Politics of the Netherlands, currently in its fourth edition, is considered an indispensable textbook on Dutch politics.

In 2006, Rudy Andeweg became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.