Arjan Schakel is Professor in Comparative Territorial Democracy at the Department of Comparative Political Science and principal Investigator of the project Strengthening Regional Democracy: Contributing to Good Democratic Governance which is funded by a Starting Grant from the Trond Mohn Foundation and the University of Bergen. Before moving to Bergen, Arjan was an assistant professor at Maastricht University (2011-2019), a Newton International Fellow at the University of Edinburgh (2009-2011), and a PhD candidate at the Free University Amsterdam (2005-2009).

Arjan's research on regional authority has been published by Oxford University Press (2016), Routledge (2010), and Regional & Federal Studies (2008). He has also edited two books on regional and national elections in Western (2013) and Eastern (2017) European countries and he is editor of the Annual Review of Regional Elections published by Regional & Federal Studies as well as of the book series on Comparative Territorial Politics published by Palgrave Macmillan. 

Arjan H. Schakel is regularly invited to present his research at the Committee of the Regions (of the EU), the European Institute of Public Administration, and the OECD. In addition, Arjan frequently delivers a talk or lecture at research institutes and universities across Europe and beyond. In 2019, Arjan has completed the course on Societal Impact & Knowledge at Maastricht University. A list of dissemination activities is provided on Arjan's CV (see link above) and reports produced for practitioner organisations such as the Assembly of European Regions and the European Commission can be downloaded from his personal website.

Arjan H. Schakel has been responsible for developing academic research skills tracks and courses on research design and quantitative and qualitative methods. He has taught courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels on comparative politics, governance in the EU, longitudinal and multilevel modelling, quantitative data analysis, and qualitative research skills. Arjan has supervised more than 30 BA-theses and over 20 MA-theses and he teaches in the PhD training programme on Governance and Policy Analysis (GPAC2) offered by the United Nations University (UNI-MERIT) and Maastricht University. In 2013 Arjan obtained his University Teaching Qualification from Maastricht University and in 2018 he completed a course on Academic Leadership (Steep Face) at Maastricht University. Between 2016 and 2019 Arjan was Director of Studies of the Bachelor European Studies at Maastricht University which enrols over 1,000 students and which involves more than 30 course coordinators and 80 tutors. 

Academic article

• Schakel, Arjan Hille; Verdoes, Alexander (2024). Does executive autonomy reduce second-order election effects?. (external link)
• Schakel, Arjan Hille; Verdoes, Alexander (2024). Does executive autonomy reduce second-order election effects?. (external link)
• Collazos-Ortiz, Maria Antonieta; Schakel, Arjan Hille (2023). Avoiding a natural resource curse? The impact of administrative efficiency on Colombian municipalities’ fiscal effort. (external link)
• Schakel, Arjan Hille; Romanova, Valentyna (2023). Moving beyond the second-order election model?: Three generations of regional election research. (external link)
• Schakel, Arjan Hille; Romanova, Valentyna (2022). Regional assemblies and executives, regional authority, and the strategic manipulation of regional elections in electoral autocracies. (external link)
• Eaton, Kent; Schakel, Arjan Hille (2022). Interconnected multilevel governance: Regional governments in Europe and beyond. (external link)
• Massetti, Emanuele; Schakel, Arjan Hille (2021). From staunch supporters to critical observers: Explaining the turn towards Euroscepticism among regionalist parties. (external link)
• Schakel, Arjan Hille; Romanova, Valentyna (2021). Horizontal and vertical spill-over in multilevel electoral systems. (external link)
• Schakel, Arjan Hille; Smith, Rodney (2021). Unravelling the ‘devolution paradox’: How preferences for self-rule and shared rule drive citizens’ opinions for regional reform and inter-regional fiscal transfers. (external link)
• Schakel, Arjan Hille; Brown, A. J. (2021). Dissecting Public Opinion on Regional Authority: Four Types of Regionalists Based on Citizens' Preferences for Self-Rule and Shared Rule. (external link)
• Schakel, Arjan Hille (2021). Regional spillover into third-order European elections. (external link)
• Bijsmans, Patrick; Schakel, Arjan Hille; Baykal, Asena et al. (2021). Internationalisation and study success: Class attendance and the delicate balance between collaborative learning and being lost in translation. (external link)
• Schakel, Arjan Hille; Romanova, Valentyna (2020). Vertical linkages between regional and national electoral arenas and their impact on multi-level democracy.. (external link)
• Schakel, Arjan Hille (2020). Multi-level governance in a “Europe with the regions”.. (external link)
• Shair-rosenfield, Sarah; Schakel, Arjan Hille; Niedzwiecki, Sara et al. (2020). Language difference and regional authority. (external link)
• Schakel, Arjan Hille; Sharma, Chanchal; Swenden, Wilfried (2019). India after the 2014 general elections: BJP dominance and the crisis of the third party system. (external link)
• Schakel, Arjan Hille; Romanova, Valentyna (2019). Two analytical ‘building blocks’ for a comprehensive understanding of regional voting. (external link)
• Vink, Maarten; Schakel, Arjan Hille; Reichel, David et al. (2019). The international diffusion of expatriate dual citizenship. (external link)

Academic chapter/article/Conference paper

• Schakel, Arjan Hille; Verdoes, Alexander (2023). Tracing developments in regional electoral democracy: the impact of regional authority, regional identity, and regional electoral systems on the regional vote. (external link)
• Schakel, Arjan Hille; Sharma, Chanchal; Swenden, Wilfried (2022). BJP Dominance and the Making of the Fourth Party System. (external link)
• Schakel, Arjan Hille (2021). Exploring and explaining trends in decentralization . (external link)
• Schakel, Arjan Hille; Massetti, Emanuele (2020). Regional Institutions and the European Union. (external link)
• Massetti, Emanuele; Schakel, Arjan Hille (2020). Regionalist Parties and the European Union. (external link)
• Hooghe, Liesbet; Marks, Gary; Schakel, Arjan Hille (2020). Multilevel governance. (external link)
• Schakel, Arjan Hille (2020). Mesurer le fédéralisme et al décentralisation: l’index sur l’autorité régionale. (external link)
• Schakel, Arjan Hille (2019). The European multilevel party system: moving towards unity or diversity?. (external link)
• Schakel, Arjan Hille (2019). Netherlands: A Timmermans (Spitzenkandidaten) effect?. (external link)

Book review

• Schakel, Arjan Hille (2021). Multilevel democracy: How local institutions and civil society shape the modern state. By Jefferey M. Sellers, Anders Lidström, and Yooil Bae. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. 396p. $120.00 cloth.. (external link)
• Schakel, Arjan Hille (2019). Are Politics Local? The Two Dimensions of Party Nationalization around the World , Morgenstern, Scott. New York, Cambridge University Press, 2017. 310 pp.. (external link)

Report

• Peters, Yvette; Broderstad, Troy Saghaug; Helliesen, Mari Skåra et al. (2021). Panel of Elected Representatives: Results from the third round. (external link)

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.

A list of publications by Arjan H. Schakel can be accessed through his Google Scholar profile and through his personal website. 

Arjan's personal website also provides a wealth of downloadable data on regions which he has been collecting and assembling over the past decade. His website presents the regional authority index which provides annual scores individual regions in 81 countries from 1950 until 2018 and data on regional, national, and European elections and governments in 23 European countries since 1950. In addition, Arjan's personal website also provides downloadable data on regionalist parties (vote shares in regional, national, and European elections and positions on the centre-periphery, left-right, and European integration dimensions) and regional electoral systems (e.g. thresholds, district magnitudes, etc.).

Arjan H. Schakel is Principal Investigator of the project Strengthening Regional Democracy: Contributing to Good Democratic Governance which is funded by a Starting Grant from the Trond Mohn Foundation and the University of Bergen. More information about the project can be found on the project website.

Before moving to the University of Bergen in 2019, Arjan has led several projects funded by the European Commission (2011-2012, 2016-2017) and funded through Fellowships offered by the British Academy (2009-2011, 2013-2014) and the Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg Institute for Advanced Study (2014-2015).