Telephone number:	+31 (0)71 527 3786
E-Mail:	atimmermans@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
Faculty / Department:	Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen, Instituut Bestuurskunde
Office Address:	Pieter de la Court gebouw Wassenaarseweg 52 2333 AK Leiden

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Arco Timmermans is assistant professor of Comparative Public Policy. He studied political science in Leiden (1983-1989) and obtained his PhD in the social and political sciences at the European University Institute in Florence (1996). Previously he worked at the departments of Public Administration of the Delft University of Technology (1992-1998) and the University of Twente (1998-2007), and was a guest lecturer at several universities across Europe. In November 2007 he joined the department of Public Administration in Leiden. His research focuses on attention for policy problems and agenda setting in the Netherlands and in comparative perspective. This research deals with the intriguing question how policy problems arise, become prominent and may even turn into hypes, and then decline in public and political attention. Projects on this subject analyze the attention for problems in government plans since 1945; links between media attention, scientific information and political priority for environmental issues such as climate change; the expansion of attention for safety issues; budgetary changes over time; crosscountry comparisons of immigrant policy and morality policy, and the impact of Europeanization on the national policy agenda. He also publishes on coalition governance and legislative politics. This analytical work not only seeks to explain agenda dynamics but also produces policy-relevant knowledge for governmental and other organizations that are themselves central to the politics of attention. On these different topics he has organized national and international workshops and panels within the Netherlands Institute of Government and the European Consortium for Political Research. For several years he also worked as a political columnist discussing issues of local government, regional and national politics, and Europe.
Arco Timmermans teaches research methods in the bachelor and master programs, and organizes capstone projects on political agenda setting which are open to students interested in research experience. He also teaches in the national public administration trainee program (rijkstraineeprogramma) at The Hague Campus, and in the PhD program of the Netherlands Institute of Government.

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