Tom Theuns

Tom Theuns is Assistant Professor of Political Theory and European Politics at the Institute of Political Science in Leiden and Associate Researcher at the Centre for European Studies at Sciences Po Paris. Previously, he held a research position at Utrecht University and a teaching position at the University of Amsterdam. In 2020 he won a Veni grant from the NWO for his project ‘Protecting Democracy in Europe’.

Tom Theuns defended his PhD in Political Science at Sciences Po Paris in 2017. Before Paris, he read for an MPhil in Politics at Balliol College, University of Oxford, and a BA in Liberal Arts and Sciences at University College Maastricht.

Current research projects investigate the right to vote, especially the democratic legitimacy of disenfranchisement and the appropriate boundaries of the franchise, the tension between democratic ideals and EU policies, procedural accounts of the value and justification of democratic government, and the legitimate scope of EU policies designed to protect and entrench democratic government.

Besides publishing academic work, Tom Theuns is also a regular commentator on European political affairs for venues including Le Monde Diplomatique, EUobserver and Orient XXI.