Dorina Bërdufi, Professor of Political Science, Aleksandër Moisiu University of Durrës

Dorina Bërdufi is an Associate Professor and political scientist specializing in electoral politics, governance, and democratic development in Albania and the Western Balkans. Her research focuses on electoral behavior, political representation, public policy, accountability, and democratic consolidation, and is strongly empirically oriented, with emphasis on survey-based research. She is a lecturer at Aleksandër Moisiu University of Durrës, where she has also served as Head of the Department of Political Science. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Tirana and has contributed to numerous national and international research projects on elections, political finance, civic participation, governance, and EU integration. She has authored and co-authored scholarly publications, policy analyses, and academic studies in political science and governance, and is actively engaged in policy-oriented research, teaching, and public opinion analysis in Albania.

Email address: berdufidorina@gmail.com and dorinaberdufi@uamd.edu.al 

Afrim Krasniqi, Researcher in contemporary history, Institute of History / Academy of Sciences

Professor Afrim Krasniqi is a historian, researcher, and political analyst specializing in contemporary Albanian history, political systems, regime change, and post-communist transition. He is a researcher in the Department of Contemporary History at the Institute of History, Albanian Academy of Sciences, and Executive Director of the Institute for Political Studies (ISP), a Tirana-based think tank focused on democracy, governance, elections, and institutional development. He holds a PhD in History from the University of Tirana, as well as a master’s degree from Viadrina University in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany. Professor Krasniqi has authored several monographs and scholarly studies on Albanian political history and institutional transformation, including works on civil society, elections and political parties, political systems, and central and local governance in Albania. His work combines historical analysis with political science perspectives. He is also a regular columnist and political commentator in Albanian and regional media.

Email address: afrimkrasniqi@gmail.com and afrim.krasniqi@asa.edu.al 

Personal webpage 

Carmen Walenta-Bergmann, PostDoc researcher, Johannes Kepler University Linz

Carmen Walenta-Bergmann is a PostDoc researcher at the Institute of Politics and Social Policy at the Johannes Kepler University Linz in Austria. Her main research interests are subnational politics, political representation, federations, and quantitative data analysis. 

Email address: carmen.walenta-bergmann@jku.at

Personal webpage

Kristof Steyvers, Full Professor of Political Science, Department of Political Science, Ghent University 

Kristof Steyvers is Full Professor of Political Science at the Department of Political Science of Ghent University (Belgium). There, he chairs the Centre for Local Politics. His research focuses on topics such as local political leadership, elections and parties at the local level, local democratic innovations, local government reform and comparative local politics. Since, the beginning of the 21st century, he has been involved in the various projects of the LocGov network. He is also one of the country group coordinators of the local autonomy index. Steyvers teaches in the fields of comparative (local) politics and parties and party systems.

Email address: kristof.steyvers@ugent.be 

Personal webpage 

Tom Verhelst, Associate Professor of Political Science, Department of Political Science, Ghent University 

Tom Verhelst is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science at Ghent University (Belgium), where he teaches the courses Policy Analysis, Research Skills, and Local Politics. As a member of the Centre for Local Politics, his primary research interests include local councils and councillors, with a particular focus on council scrutiny and the recruitment and selection process of councillors. Additionally, his academic work explores the Europeanisation of local government and, more specifically, the interest representation of local authorities in EU decision-making.

Email address: Tom Verhelst

Personal webpage 

Damir Kasum

Damir Kasum is a PhD candidate whose research focuses on local politics, post-conflict societies, and the Western Balkans, particularly Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Since 2023, he has been part of the LocGov Research Network. Within this international research initiative, he serves as a territorial expert for Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is also the country expert for Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Local Autonomy Index (LAI) project, which measures the degree of municipal autonomy in European countries. 

His recent work includes a study on the attitudes of councillors in post conflict societies, published as part of the book Municipal Councillors in Europe, Volume II: Citizens and Government, and a study on the direct mayoral elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina (East European Politics, 2026).

Email address: damir@kasum.cz

ORCID 0009-0004-6824-851X

Desislava Kalcheva, Assoc. Prof., Department of Industrial Economics and Management, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski

Assoc. Prof. Desislava Kalcheva, PhD, is a faculty member at the Department of Industrial Economics and Management, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski.. She joined the university in 2019 as a part-time lecturer and since 2023 has been a full-time academic staff member. She lectures in the fields of public finance, local government finance, financial Management and venture capital. She has more than 15 years of professional experience in the field of public finance, including positions as a municipal finance expert at the Fund for Local Authorities and Governments (FLAG) and as Chief Expert at the Fiscal Council of Bulgaria. Since March 2025, she has been a member of the Fiscal Council of Bulgaria. Her research interests focus on public finance, fiscal decentralization, local government finance, regional development, public administration, public policy, and public investments. Assoc. Prof. Kalcheva has participated in the development of methodologies related to assessing municipal financial autonomy and municipal creditworthiness.

Email address: d.kalcheva@gmail.com

Personal webpage

Dubravka Jurlina Alibegovic, Senior Research Fellow in Permanent Position, The Institute of Economics, Zagreb

Dubravka Jurlina Alibegović is a Senior Research Fellow with permanent tenure at The Institute of Economics, Zagreb. Her research and professional work focus on local public finance, fiscal decentralization, intergovernmental fiscal relations, strategic and budget planning, as well as regional and local development. She lectures in graduate programs covering city management, local finance, and local development. She has participated in numerous international research and survey projects addressing subnational public finance, strategic planning at regional and local levels, integrated coastal zone management, municipal assemblies in European local governance (MAELG), policy-making at the second tier of local government in Europe, local state–society relations (LSSR), and the role of municipal councillors across Europe. She has contributed to public policy development in Croatia as a member of the Committee for Decentralization appointed by the Government of the Republic of Croatia, as well as a member of the negotiating team for regional policy during Croatia’s accession process to the European Union. In addition, she is actively engaged in several international professional and academic networks. She serves on the Governing Board of the European Association for Urban Research and is a member of the Croatian section of the European Regional Science Association and the Euro-Mediterranean Forum of Economic Institutes. She is currently involved in the LocGov Research Network.

Email address: djurlina@eizg.hr

Personal webpage 

Sunčana Slijepčević, Senior Research Fellow, The Institute of Economics, Zagreb

Sunčana Slijepčević is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Economics, Zagreb, Croatia. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics and Business. She is the Head of the Department for Regional Development. Her primary research areas include local and regional development, fiscal and administrative decentralization, public sector performance, resilience, governance and corruption, energy efficiency, the digital divide in the provision of public services, public participation in local decision-making, and regional inequalities, among others. She has participated in numerous scientific projects dealing with regional development, local government finance, public procurement, energy efficiency, digital public services, and sustainable local development. She was also involved in surveys on municipal assemblies in European local governance (MAELG), policymaking at the second tier of local government in Europe, local state–society relations (LSSR), and municipal councillors in Europe. Her current research activities include the project Challenges Facing Local and Regional Development in Croatia, which explores regional inequalities, sustainability, creativity, and citizens’ perceptions of local development challenges. She is the author of two scientific books.

Email address: suncana@eizg.hr 

Personal webpage 

Jakub Lysek, Associate Professor of Political Science, Palacky University Olomouc, Czechia

Jakub Lysek is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Politics and European Studies at Palacký University in Olomouc, Czech Republic. His research primarily focuses on voting behaviour, elections, local government, and the quality of governance. Methodologically, he specializes in spatial analysis and quantitative methods in the social sciences. He has published his research in peer-reviewed journals such as Local Government Studies, Electoral Studies, and Regional and Federal Studies. He has participated in several international research projects focusing on local democracy, decentralization, and survey research, including his role as a country expert for the European Commission's Local Autonomy Index (LAI) project. He is an active member of the ECPR Standing Group on Local Government and Politics. Within this international academic network, he recently co-edited two comprehensive books: Municipal Councillors in Europe and Perspectives on Local Governance Across Europe. Currently, he is involved in ongoing research examining uncontested elections, inter-municipal cooperation, and spatial patterns of electoral support in Central Europe.

Email address: jakub.lysek@upol.cz

Personal webpage 

Linnéa Henriksson, University lecturer in Public Leadership, Åbo Akademi University

Linnéa Henriksson is a university lecturer in Public Leadership at the Department of Social Sciences at Åbo Akademi University, in Finland. Her main research focus is the interplay between politics and administration, especially in the local government; municipal decision-makers and their attitudes, as well as minority governance and citizen participation. Henriksson also has 20 years of local politics behind her, as a councillor and in other elected offices.

Email address: linnea.henriksson@abo.fi

Personal webpage 

Anni Jäntti, University lecturer in Local and Regional Governance, Tampere University

Anni Jäntti (PhD, Title of Docent) is university lecturer in Local and Regional Governance at Tampere University, Finland. She has a broad interest in topics related to local government and urban studies, particularly issues concerning local governance and democracy, e.g., local self-government, the role of local government, local sustainability governance, citizen participation and administrative reforms.

Email address: anni.jantti@tuni.fi

Personal webpage 

Hubert Heinelt, Retired Professor at the Institute of Political Science, TU Darmstadt

Email address: Hubert.heinelt@tu-darmstadt.de

Personal webpage 

Björn Egner, Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Political Science, TU Darmstadt

Björn Egner is adjunct professor and chair of the research group “Methodology in Political Science and Philosophy of Science” at the Institute of Political Science. He graduated in political science, history and sociology and received his doctoral degree for a book about notions of German mayors. His habilitation thesis identified determinants of public expenditure on the state level in federations. His research focus is located in public policy (especially housing policy) and local politics.

Email address: bjoern.egner@tu-darmstadt.de

Personal webpage 

Gábor Dobos, Research Fellow, ELTE Centre for Social Sciences, Senior Research Fellow, Ludovika University of Public Service

Gábor Dobos is a political scientist. He currently serves as a Research Fellow at the HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences and as a Senior Research Fellow at Ludovika University of Public Service, Hungary. He is a member of the ECPR Standing Group on Local Government and Politics and actively involved in the EURA Working Group on Countries Experiencing an 'Illiberal Turn'. Since 2014, he has participated in multiple survey projects of the LocGov Research Network.

Dobos is a member of the Hungarian Political Science Association, serving on its executive board from 2015 to 2024 and as Secretary General from 2021 to 2024.

His research interests include local politics, constitutional adjudication, and political institutions. Dobos has published extensively on these topics in both Hungarian and English, contributing to edited volumes and prestigious international journals such as the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society; East European Politics; and Urban Research & Practice.

Email address: dobos.gabor@tk.hu

Judit Kalman, Assistant Professor, Corvinus University Budapest - Dept. of Public Policy 

Judit Kálmán, PhD, is an assistant professor at the Department of Public Policy, Institute of Social and Political Sciences, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary - also occasionally involved in policy consultancy. She holds a PhD in Political Science from Central European University. Her research interests include political economy, public economics and finance, public policy evaluation, multi-level governance and welfare states development. She has worked on different aspects of EU Cohesion Policy, surveyed local governance, finance and leadership in Hungary and CEE, wrote about various labour market policy topics. She was part of various COST Actions (e.g. IGCOORD on intergovernmental coordination) as well as HORIZON and other international research projects, a member of LOGOPOL network since 2025.

Email address: judit.kalman@uni-corvinus.hu

Personal webpage

Eva Marín Hlynsdóttir, Professor of Public Policy and Governance, Faculty of Political Science, University of Iceland

Eva Marín Hlynsdóttir is a Professor of Public Policy and Governance at the Faculty of Political Science. Her research topics include various aspects of local and national governance and government such as, gender at the local level, bureaucratic and political leadership at the local and national level, multi-level governance as well as local and national governance in small states. I am a member of several European research networks on local governance as well as a Nordic network on the role of the municipal CEO in the Nordic context. I am currently a member of the Group of Independent Experts on the European Charter of Local Self-Government (GIE) within the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities at the Council of Europe since 2018. I have served on several advisory boards within the Icelandic ministry of Local Government and in relation to my membership of the GIE.

Personal webpage

Eran Razin, Professor emeritus, Department of Geography and Institute of Urban and Regional Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Eran Razin is professor emeritus at the Department of Geography, former director of the Institute of Urban and Regional Studies (the graduate urban planning program) and former chair of the Department of Geography of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He specializes in comparative local government and urban development and has published/coedited eight books and numerous articles. Razin serves on the board of IPSA Research Committee 05, Comparative Studies on Local Government and Politics, and is honorary member of the IGU Commission on Geography and Governance. Razin served as chair and member of numerous commissions appointed by Israel’s Ministry of Interior: municipal boundaries and revenue redistribution, municipal amalgamation, financial transfers to local governments and fiscal strength measures.

Email address: msrazin@mail.huji.ac.il

Personal webpage

Asaf Heiman, PhD candidate in the political science department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Asaf Heiman studies political institutions from a comparative perspective, focusing on Israeli politics, local government, political parties, electoral systems, and political reforms. He holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Political Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is a Ph.D. candidate in the university’s Department of Political Science. His dissertation examines institutional personalism and collegialism in local government, comparing municipalities within and across countries. Heiman also serves as a research assistant in the Political Reform Program at the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI). 

Email address: Asaf.heiman@mail.huji.ac.il

Silvia Bolgherini, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Perugia (Italy)

Silvia Bolgherini is Associate Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Science at the University of Perugia. Her research interests revolve around: Local Government and Comparative Local Politics: systems of municipal governance, local autonomy, intergovernmental relations, territorial governance, and institutional reform in comparative perspective; Electoral Participation at the Local and Municipal Level: Voter abstention, multi-level vote congruence, the effects of municipal mergers on electoral turnout, and the institutional and contextual determinants of local turnout; Territorial Reform and Inter-municipal Cooperation: Municipal mergers and unions, institutional rescaling, inter-municipal cooperation, and the reorganisation of intermediate tiers of government; Second-Order Elections (SOE) and Regional Elections: European, regional, and local elections as indicators of national political dynamics; sub-national party systems; multi-level electoral congruence; Party Systems and Comparative Politics: Party system change, primary elections, political personalisation, electoral behaviour, Italian and German politics. She has led, and participated in, several international research projects and currently coordinates the COMET-LATAM-EU project on municipal electoral participation in Latin America and the EU.
She has received recognition from several international scholarly associations, and held visiting teaching and research positions at numerous European and American universities.

Email address: silvia.bolgherini@unipg.it

Personal webpage

Marta Ponzo, Postdoctoral Researcher, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna 

Marta Ponzo is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Bologna. She holds a PhD from the University of Perugia. Her research interests include political elites, local politics, democratic quality, and social movements.

Email address: marta.ponzo@unibo.it

Matteo Boldrini, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Siena (Italy)

Matteo Boldrini is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Political, Cognitive and Social Sciences (DISPoC) at the University of Siena. He received his PhD in Social and Political Change from the University of Florence, in co-tutorship with Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. His research focuses on political and social élites, multilevel political careers, local politics, and the role of local contexts in shaping electoral competition. His work has appeared in Regional & Federal Studies, European Political Science, Parliamentary Affairs, Italian Political Science Review, and Contemporary Italian Politics, among other journals.

Email address: matteo.boldrini@unisi.it 

Jurga Bučaitė-Vilkė, Associate professor of Sociology, Director of Kavolis Transdisciplinary Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vytautas Magnus University

Jurga Bučaitė-Vilkė is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and the director of the Vytautas Kavolis Transdisciplinary Research Institute at Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania. Her research focuses on participatory democracy, local governance and local social welfare policies. Since 2008 she has been involved in several international and national funded research projects on local governance, community participation and territorial welfare policies. As the principal investigator and lead researcher of numerous international research projects, Dr. Bučaitė-Vilkė has introduced innovative approaches to analyzing local political representation, inter-municipal cooperation, and participatory governance. She and her team have implemented projects with empirical designs that integrate qualitative and quantitative tools, such as comparative institutional analysis, stakeholder interviews, spatial data mapping, surveys. Recently she serves as Principal Investigator (PI) in the joint Taiwan-Lithuania-Latvia Science Program Project, "Patterns of Inclusion to Democratic Systems from Authoritarian Regimes: Comparative Analysis of Local Representation in Lithuania, Latvia, and Taiwan" (No. S-LLT-24-1, 2024–2026) and Lithuania Council of Research Project No. S-MIP-25-86 “Digital Engagement and Collaboration in Local Governance: New Directions of Co-Production in Data-Driven Lithuanian Municipalities“. 

orcid.org/0000-0001-5049-3411

Email address: Jurga.bucaite-vilke@vdu.lt

Personal webpage

Aistė Lazauskienė, Assoc. prof., Vytautas Magnus University

Aistė Lazauskienė is a professor at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania. In 2004, she defended her doctoral dissertation in the field of humanities (history). Her research focuses on local governance, the history of local government, local elites, and elections.
She has been involved in LocGov Research Network since 2014. Within the network, she has participated in several surveys:  European Mayors II (2016), Local State–Society Relations (2020), and European Councillors II (2024).
She has also participated in research projects funded by the Lithuanian Research Council, including: Lithuanian Mayors: Political Leadership Aspects in Local Self-Government (2015–2016), Cooperation of Municipalities in Providing Public Services: Network Governance Possibilities and the Dilemma of Public Interest in Lithuania (2017–2019), and Changing Role of Local Councillors in Self-Governance: Leadership, Institutions and Communities (2023–2025). From 2020 to 2023, she led the project Kaunas City Governing Elite (1918–1940). Currently, she is involved in the project Digital Engagement and Collaboration in Local Governance: New Directions of Co-Production in Data-Driven Lithuanian Municipalities.
Since 2013, she has been a member of the Independent Expert Group of the European Charter of Local Self-Government within the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

Email address: aiste.lazauskiene@vdu.lt

Personal webpage

Inga Gaižauskaitė, Researcher, V. Kavolis Transdisciplinary Research Institute, Vytautas Magnus University

Inga Gaižauskaitė is a sociologist, affiliated with the V. Kavolis Transdisciplinary Research Institute at the Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania and the Institute of Sociology at the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences. Her research interests include democracy, social and political trust, political participation, and solidarity in the context of the European Union (EU). I. Gaižauskaitė has an extended competence in the field of social research methodology, research ethics, and integrity in research. As a methodology expert, I. Gaižauskaitė is involved in Lithuanian research teams (at Vytautas Magnus University) of three social science research infrastructures: international infrastructure of the European Social Survey (ESS ERIC), international infrastructure of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE ERIC), and national infrastructure of the Lithuanian Longitudinal Social Survey (LIST). She serves as a board member of RC33 Logic and Methodology in Sociology of the International Sociological Association. 

Email address: inga.gaizauskaite@vdu.lt

Personal webpage

Simon Otjes, Associate Professor of Dutch Politics, Leiden University

Simon Otjes is an associate professor of Dutch Politics at the Institute of Political Science of Leiden University. His research focuses on how political parties compete and cooperate at the local, national and European level. He has previously published in the American Journal of Political Research, the Journal of Politics and the European Journal of Political Research. He Is a leading scholar in the Local Party Politics Network. 

Email address: s.p.otjes@fsw.leidenuniv.nl

Personal webpage

Jan Erling Klausen, Professor of Political Science, University of Oslo

Jan Erling Klausen is Professor of Political Science at the University of Oslo. His research focuses on local democracy, political participation, comparative local government reform, and multi-level governance. He has participated in several international research projects on local politics and municipal amalgamations in Europe and is currently involved in the DEMRE (Democratic Innovations and Responsive Politicians) project on how politicians relate to participatory governance.

Email address: j.e.klausen@stv.uio.no

Personal webpage

Adam Gendźwiłł, Associate Professor of Political Science and Sociology, University of Warsaw

Adam Gendźwiłł is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the Faculty of Sociology, University of Warsaw, where he leads the Center for Electoral Studies. His research focuses on comparative local government studies, particularly political geography of territorial reforms, local elections, and political representation in local governments. He has participated in several international research projects, including European surveys of mayors, councilors, and institutions linking local authorities and local civil society. He has served as an expert on decentralization and local government for the Council of Europe (CDDG, GRECO), think-tanks and public institutions in Poland. Recently, he published in Local Government Studies, West European Politics, Party Politics, Parliamentary Affairs, and co-edited (with U. Kjaer and K. Steyvers) the Handbook of Local Elections and Voting in Europe (Routledge, 2022).

Email address: a.gendzwill@uw.edu.pl

Personal webpage

Filipe Teles, Professor of Political Science, University of Aveiro

Filipe Teles is professor of Political Science, researcher at the Research Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policy, and Director of the PhD Programme in Public Policies, at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. He served as President of the European Urban Research Association (2021–2025). He has acted as expert and consultant on subnational governance for organisations such as the OECD, and the World Bank, and lectured and collaborated with universities and institutions across Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. He is Series Co-editor of Palgrave Studies in Sub-National Governance, Co-editor of the journal Territory, Politics, Governance, and a member of the editorial board of Urban Research & Practice. He has also held leadership roles in international academic networks, including the ECPR Standing Group on Local Government and Politics, the board of the IPSA Research Committee on Comparative Studies on Local Government and Politics, and the Portuguese Political Science Association.

Email address: filipe.teles@ua.pt

Personal webpage

Cristina Stănuș, Professor of Political Science, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu

Cristina Stănuș is a Professor of Political Science at the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania. She also serves as a Ph.D. supervisor in Political Science at the West University of Timișoara. Her research focuses on European local governance, inter-municipal cooperation, institutional transparency, and public policy delivery. She has been a principal investigator and the leader of the Romanian research team for several international comparative research projects focused on local politics and government. In addition to her academic research, she has consultancy experience, serving as a national expert for the Université de Lausanne’s Local Autonomy Index project and collaborating on initiatives with international organizations like the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Open Society Institute. She is engaged in professional networks, serving on the governing boards of both the European Urban Research Association (EURA) and the Romanian Quantitative Studies Association (RQSA). Additionally, she contributes to academic publishing as a member of the editorial boards for Urban Research & Practice and EURA Conversations.

Email address: cristina.stanus@ulbsibiu.ro

Personal webpage

Dejan Bursać, Senior Research Fellow, University of Belgrade, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory

Dejan Bursać is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory of the University of Belgrade. His research focuses on electoral systems, party systems, democracy and hybrid regimes, and he has published over 70 articles and other contributions on these topics in domestic and international academic journals and edited volumes, including one monograph (in Serbian). He is also a visiting lecturer at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade. He obtained his PhD from the same faculty in 2019.

Email address: dejan.bursac@ifdt.bg.ac.rs

Personal webpage

Nikola Jović, Professor of Political Science, University of Belgrade

Ph.D. Nikola Jović (1985) is an Associate Professor and researcher at the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Political Science, Serbia.  During his academic career, he had research stays at Ohio State University and the University of Massachusetts. Alongside teaching, he is actively involved in research and political consulting, working with companies, NGOs, think tanks, international organizations, academic institutions, embassies, and political parties. His academic interests focus on quantitative and qualitative research methods, political campaign management, and the role of emotions in political decision-making. He has published papers on local political campaigns, youth voting behavior, and voting under the influence of emotions. He is currently leading the European Values Study (EVS) project for Serbia.

Email address: nikola.jovic@fpn.bg.ac.rs

Personal webpage

Dušan Vučićević, Associate Professor, Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade

Dušan Vučićević is a associate professor at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade, where he teaches political institutions, constitutional design, elections and electoral systems. He has published in international journals, including Public Choice, Representation, Journal of Political Marketing, Southeastern Europe, New Perspectives, and others.

Email address: dusan.vucicevic@fpn.bg.ac.rs

Viktor Stamenković, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Political Sciences, Uniersity of Belgrade

Viktor Stamenković is a PhD candidate at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Political Sciences, where his research focuses on candidate selection methods, political parties, and elections. His doctoral research examines candidate selection mechanisms in Southeast Europe. He has been part of the LocGov Research Network since joining the project Municipal Councillors in Europe: Profile and Roles.

Email address: stamenkovicviktor97@gmail.com

Simona Kukovič, Full Professor of Political Science, School of Advanced Social Studies, and University of Ljubljana 

Dr. Simona Kukovič is a Full Professor of Political Science specialising in political and administrative local leadership. Her broader research focuses on leadership, comparative local and regional government, local democracy and participation, regional development, and public administration. She serves as the Slovenian representative in COST networks, Secretary General and Executive Committee member of the Central European Political Science Association (CEPSA), and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Comparative Politics. She is also Vice-Dean for Science and Research. In 2024, she completed executive education in leadership at Yale University, CT, USA. Dr. Kukovič has been a visiting professor and researcher at several universities, she has led numerous national and international research projects, including a postdoctoral project and six bilateral projects between Slovenia and partner countries. Awarded the title of Jean Monnet Professor in 2022, she held a Jean Monnet Chair (2022–2024), founded the Summer Leadership Academy, and in 2024 became Head of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence. For 2025–2027, she serves as Project Manager of the SMILE Incubator within the Interreg Danube Transnational Programme. Dr. Kukovič is the (co-)author of numerous scientific publications.

Email address: simona.kukovic@fuds.si

Personal webpage

Miro Hacek, Professor of Political Science, University of Ljubljana

Miro Hacek is Professor at the Department of Political Science at the Faculty of Social Sciences. He runs courses Introduction to Political System, Introduction to Public Administration and Local and Regional Government. He is former head of political science department and head of policy analysis and public administration department at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ljubljana. Between 2012-2018 he served as the Vice-President of Central European Political Science Association (CEPSA), from 2018 to 2024 as President of the Association, from 2024 he is serving as Senior President of CEPSA. In 2020 he is Fulbright S-I-R Fellow at Black Hills State University (BHSU), US. He was visiting professor to Montana State University Billings (2022), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2018), University of Johannesburg (summer 2018), Hong Kong Baptist University (2005, 2007), South Dakota State University (2009, 2010), Hughes Hall, Cambridge (2001) and De Montfort University, Leicester (2016). He is Editor-In-Chief of international Journal of Comparative Politics. He is recipient of the outstanding scientific accomplishments award for 2023 at the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Email address: miro.hacek@fdv.uni-lj.si

Personal webpage

Carmen Navarro, Associate Professor of Political Science, Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM)

I am Associate Professor of Political Science at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) and Director of the University Institute of Law and Local Government (IDGL-UAM). Since 2023, I have served as Chair of IPSA Research Committee 05 on Comparative Studies in Local Government and Politics.
My research focuses on local government and local democracy from a comparative perspective. I participate actively in international research networks and projects on local governance, decentralization, metropolitan governance, and local autonomy, including the Local Government Research Network of which I have been a member since 2003 (LOCGOV), the Local Public Sector Reforms Cost Action (LocRef), and the Local Autonomy Index (LAI).
I have published extensively in leading journals such as Local Government Studies, European Political Science, Urban Research & Practice, and the International Journal of Public Sector Management, as well as with publishers including Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan, Springer VS, and Edward Elgar.
I have participated in more than 20 nationally and internationally funded research projects, serving as Principal Investigator in ten. I am currently co-Principal Investigator of CAFELocal (2025–2028), a project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science that examines institutional capacity of local governments for attracting and implementing European funds. 

ORCID es 0000-0003-0473-6261.

Email address: c.navarro@uam.es

Personal webpage

Lluís Medir, Associate Professor of Political Science, Universitat de Barcelona (UB) 

Holds degrees in Law and Political Science from the Universitat de Barcelona, a Master’s degree in Political Sociology from the Institut d’Études Politiques de Toulouse, and a PhD jointly awarded by IEP Toulouse and the Universitat de Barcelona. His academic career focuses on the study of local government, mainly from a Political Science perspective, while also drawing on Public Law and Public Management. His research is structured around three core areas: local institutions and their evolution, local public policies and management, and the study of local political elites. He predominantly uses quantitative methodologies, treating local government as a privileged laboratory for addressing key questions in Political Science. He has published in leading journals such as Local Government Studies, International Journal of Public Sector Management, and Urban Research and Practice, and have authored and edited books with Routledge and Palgrave. He is a member of the ECPR Standing Group on Local Government, EURA, and AECPA, and has participated with LocGov since the European Mayor 2nd round. Alongside his research, he collaborates with public administrations and currently serves as Deputy Secretary General of the University of Barcelona.

Email address: lluismedir@ub.edu

Personal webpage

Esther Pano, Director, Fundació Carles Pi i Sunyer and Associate Lecturer, University of Barcelona

Esther Pano is Phd in Political Science by the University of Barcelona. She is associated lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Constitutional Law, at the Barcelona University. She is also Director of the Fundació Carles Pi i Sunyer (http://www.pisunyer.org/). She is currently member of the GREL (research group in local politics, www.ub.edu/grel). Her research interests are related to empirical institutional analysis, local government, and institutional design both from a political perspective as from an organizational point of view. 

Email address: epano@pisunyer.org, epano@ub.edu

Personal webpage

David Karlsson, Professor of Public Administration, University of Gothenburg 

David Karlsson is Professor of Public Administration at the School of Public Administration, University of Gothenburg. His research focuses on local politics and public administration, covering themes such as the actors and institutions of representative democracy, multilevel governance, intermunicipal relations, local self-government, out- and backsourcing, party conflicts, centre-periphery perspectives etc. He is currently involved in research projects focusing on location of public services, cybersecurity, alcohol policy and energy policy. He has been responsible for numerous survey projects directed at politicians at all levels in Sweden, as well as surveys targeting public administrators and citizens. Within the LocGov network, he contributed as an assistant in the mayor study in 2003, and later served as the Swedish PI for the first councillor survey in 2008 and the second mayor survey in 2015.

Email address: david.karlsson@spa.gu.se 

Personal webpage

Stefan Kalberer, PhD Student, Centre for Democracy Studies, University of Zurich

Stefan Kalberer is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Democracy Studies at the University of Zurich. His research focuses on local democracy and local politics, with a particular interest in citizen participation and democratic governance at the municipal level. He has participated in various national and international academic conferences, where he has presented and discussed his research with scholars and practitioners from different fields. In addition to his academic work, he has contributed to several research projects on local politics and civic participation. Through these activities, he has gained experience in both qualitative and quantitative research methods and developed a strong interest in the relationship between democratic institutions and citizen engagement.

Email address: stefan.kalberer@zda.uzh.ch

David Sweeting, Senior lecturer in Urban Studies, University of Bristol

David Sweeting (BA, MSc, PhD, FHEA) is a senior lecturer in Urban Studies in the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol. His research has considered various aspects of local and urban governance, often in international perspective. His interests take in city leadership, local democracy, citizen participation and latterly, smart cities. He has edited three books and published in numerous leading journals, including in Local Government Studies, Environment and Planning C, and the Journal of Urban Affairs. He has researched the impact of the introduction of the directly elected mayor model of local political leadership in England, the leadership of municipalities in Spain (while holding a visiting position at the Autonomous University of Madrid), the attitudes of locally elected councilors to local democracy in Europe, and smart city governance in Mexico City.

Email address: David.sweeting@bristol.ac.uk

Personal webpage

Thom Oliver, Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of the West of England, Bristol

Dr Thom Oliver is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at the School of Social Sciences at UWE Bristol. His research focuses on elections and voter reasoning, local democracy and representation, city leadership and governance reform, qualitative methods and research data infrastructure. He is Principal Investigator of the Qualitative Election Study of Britain, a longitudinal project examining voter attitudes and behaviour across UK elections and referendums, and leads qualitative work linked to the Scottish and Welsh Election Studies. His publications include peer-reviewed work on mayoral governance, local government and political leadership, alongside open datasets for the UK elections research community. He is also a Co-Investigator on the Bristol Civic Leadership Project and contributes to comparative European research on councillors (MAELG and Local Councillors in Europe) and mayors (POLLEADER and EUROMAYORS) and professionalization and politicization of local government (PROFLOC). Thom regularly translates this research into policy and public engagement, including advisory work with government and civic organisations and commentary for BBC, ITV and international media outlets.

Email address: Thom.oliver@uwe.ac.uk

Personal webpage