Telephone number:	+31 (0)71 527 2341
E-Mail:	a.heyer@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Faculty / Department:	Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen, Institute for History, Vaderlandse Geschiedenis
Office Address:	Johan Huizingagebouw Doelensteeg 16 2311 VL Leiden Room number 1.24c

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Fields of interest

Political history, the history of political parties, party systems and social movements, 19th century Germany, England and the Netherlands, change and transition of political organizations and institutions

Research

Research project The Promise of Organisation

The research project 'The Birth of Political Mass Parties' studies the emergence of the early political party in Europe at the end of the 19th century. The leading research question is: how and why did political parties emerge? More specifically, the project will analyze the motives, expectations and rationales of party leaders and members to found and join the new organizations. In addition, the motives and objectives of individuals that were critical of the newly emerging parties are taken into consideration in order to gain a comprehensive picture of the 19th century perception of political organization. Accordingly, discourses on organizational development and its connection to internal processes of institutionalization, professionalization and politicization are explored. Three cases will be studied in the framework of this project: the German Social Democratic Party, the English Liberal Caucus in Birmingham and the Dutch Protestant Antirevolutionary Party. Through the comparison of these three cases the project not not only determines the history of each case individually, but also analyzes the organizational development of the political party as a phenomenon of its own. The different political strategies, ideological background and national context of the three parties will supdport this approach.
The research project is predominantly based on historical primary and secondary sources such as auto-biographies, biographies and political brochures and other publications composed by party leaders, their supporters and criticizers. Also reports from party congresses and newspaper articles will provide information on how party members and criticizers perceived the phenomenon of political organization. Emphasis will be placed on the comments and evaluation of the party organization, internal processes of party foundation and the role of individual leaders by different groups. In addition, theoretical approaches to the foundation of political parties will be taken into consideration to facilitate not only empirical, but also theoretical contributions of the dissertation.

Curriculum vitae

University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK, 01/09/09 - 31/08/10
MSc in Politics by Research

Jacobs University Bremen, Bremen, Germany 01/09/06 - 05/06/09
B.A. in International Politics and History

University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia 01/09/08 - 01/02/09
Exchange semester as a student of the Prometheus Programme of Transition Studies.