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PhD position ‘Survivor. The selection process of political elites in Europe’

  • VU Hoofdgebouw
  • Amsterdam
  • 1 / 1
  • School of Business and Economics
  • PhD
  • MSc
  • Closes on
    01-11-2024
  • Publishing date
    09-09-2024
Apply
Are you interested in studying which personalities become politically active and succeed in a political career, and whether these personalities correspond with the preferences of voters? Then apply for this PhD position.

Your function

Who becomes politically active and succeeds in a political career? The selection process for politicians can be visualized as a ladder, beginning with the initial ambition of citizens to run for office and culminating in the "survival" of national MPs at the top. This Vidi grant-funded project by the Dutch Research Council NWO, based at the Ethics, Governance and Society (EGS) department of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, explores how personality traits influence this selection process. At each step of the ladder, we find people who do or do not have the ambition to climb. Among those who aspire to climb, we find people that do and do not make it. How do these people differ from each other in terms of personality traits? And crucially, which personality traits do European citizens deem desirable traits for politicians?

This interdisciplinary project applies personality psychology models to provide unparalleled insights into the traits of (aspiring) politicians. Here we are particularly interested in so-called virtue related traits like honesty-humility and the traits from the Dark Triad (e.g., narcissism) and Light Triad (e.g., faith in humanity). The project examines the impact of these and other personality traits at several essential stages of the selection process: from the nascent ambition of citizens (the bottom of the ladder), to the progressive ambition of local politicians, to the promotion and retention of national MPs (the top of the ladder). At each step, we identify how personality traits shape political ambition and the fulfilment of this ambition. We also consider the role of (party) voters and selectorates within this selection process. The project team comprises a PhD candidate, a postdoc and the principal investigator (PI), Dr. Marc van de Wardt.

As a PhD candidate, you will write a dissertation, consisting of several research articles, on the personality traits that citizens across Europe deem desirable in politicians and the relationship between personality traits and political ambition (fulfillment) at the different steps of the selection process. While contributing to all aspects of the Vidi project, your key responsibility will be the panel study on local politicians tapping into personality traits, political ambition and ambition fulfilment. Designing and running this panel study will offer you the opportunity to put your unique stamp on this project. Additionally, you will contribute to a project led by the postdoc and PI, involving the collection of survey data on self-reported personality traits of politicians and coding their personality traits at a distance with a team of student coders. We will use this data to train an algorithm that can extract personality traits from inaugural speeches by politicians. Since this is a cross-national project, you will frequently be cooperating with researchers from other institutions.   

Duties of a PhD student

  • Analysing quantitative data on personality traits valued by citizens in politicians.
  • Designing and conducting a quantitative panel study on the ambition and success of local politicians
  • Contributing to data collection throughout all stages of the project, e.g., surveying national MPs online and in person, coding personality traits at a distance together with a team and collecting biographical background information on MPs
  • Writing and submitting scientific articles to peer-reviewed journals, forming the basis of your dissertation
  • Participating in research seminars where you discuss your work and build your professional network
  • Visiting (international) conferences where you present your work
  • Completing a number of PhD courses to enhance your research skills
  • Besides research tasks, you are expected to contribute to education by giving BA tutorials. Depending on the needs of the different programs that the department is involved in and your own capabilities, the (introductory) courses may be in political science, business administration or research methodology.  

Your profile

  • A master’s degree in political science or a related discipline that makes you well positioned to carry out this project
  • A research master’s degree and/or familiarity with political psychology is an asset
  • Proficiency in quantitative methods and research design
  • Programming skills (e.g., Stata, R, Python)
  • Commitment to enhancing research skills through further education
  • Excellent oral and written English skills, with a willingness to learn Dutch if necessary
  • Enthusiastic about working in an interdisciplinary team
  • Excellent communication and inter-personal skills to work effectively in a team, but also the skills to take initiative and to work independently
  • Aspiration to pursue an academic career
  • Willingness to relocate to the Netherlands, if applicable

What do we offer?

A challenging position in a socially engaged organisation. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world. And that is valuable. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:

  • a salary of € 2.872,00 (PhD) and maximum € 3.670,00 (PhD) gross per month in the fourth year, for a full-time employment
  • an employment contract of initially 1 year. If there is sufficient perspective, this will be extended to a total of 4 years. 

We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and arrangements. Some examples:

  • A full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
  • 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
  • solid pension scheme (ABP)
  • contribution to commuting expenses
  • optional model for designing a personalized benefits package

About us

EGS
The Department of Ethics, Governance, and Society (EGS) (https://vu.nl/en/about-vu/faculties/school-of-business-and-economics/departments/ethics-governance-and-society) is one of the departments of the School of Business and Economics (SBE) at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. EGS is a multidisciplinary hub of scholars focusing on behavioural, ethical, and political decision-making in organizations, institutions, markets, and society. The EGS scholars cover a wide expertise, from behavioural economics to health economics, political and social sciences, ethics and logic, and governance. What drives our work is the increasing need for expertise that spans across different disciplines in the face of many great societal challenges. The multidisciplinary nature of our research is reflected by the variety of top journals in which we publish, such as the Journal of Political Economy, Games and Economic Behaviour, Academy of Management Journal, American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, Harvard Business Review, American Journal of Sociology, and the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. Finally, the versatility of our team is reflected in our teaching. Within SBE we teach courses in the programs of Bedrijfskunde and International Business Administration on topics like experimental economics, organizational culture, and human resource management. Outside SBE, we offer courses for Amsterdam University College on themes such as International Relations and Comparative Public Policy. We are also involved in the Philosophy, Politics and Economics program within the VU.

School of Business and Economics
We at the School of Business and Economics (SBE) at VU Amsterdam bring together socially relevant teaching and research in the areas of business administration and economics. We focus on real-life issues that have a huge impact on society, economics and ecology: from robotics to big data, and from job market participation to change management.

Collaboration and cooperation, transparency and social responsibility are four keywords that embody our approach. Students, researchers and staff at SBE share real-world knowledge in order to devise solutions together to global economic and social challenges. In order to make a positive impact on the world, society and the lives of others.

Are you interested in joining SBE? You will work in a stimulating, dynamic and international environment with motivated colleagues dedicated to helping society make informed choices. SBE employs roughly 600 staff, with 7,250 students enrolled in the Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes and 1,700 executive students.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam stands for values-driven education and research. We are open-minded experts with the ability to think freely. - a broader mind. Maintaining an entrepreneurial perspective and concentrating on diversity, significance and humanity, we work on sustainable solutions with social impact. By joining forces, across the boundaries of disciplines, we work towards a better world for people and planet. Together we create a safe and respectful working and study climate, and an inspiring environment for education and research. Learn more about our codes of conduct

We are located on one physical campus, in the heart of Amsterdam's Zuidas business district, with excellent location and accessibility.  Over 6,150 staff work at the VU and over 31,000 students attend academic education.

Diversity
Diversity is the driving force of the VU. The VU wants to be accessible and receptive to diversity in disciplines, cultures, ideas, nationalities, beliefs, preferences and worldviews. We believe that trust, respect, interest and differences lead to new insights and innovation, to sharpness and clarity, to excellence and a broader understanding.

We stand for an inclusive community and believe that diversity and internationalisation contribute to the quality of education, research and our services.

Therefore, we are always searching for people whose backgrounds and experience contribute to the diversity of the VU community.

Interested

If you are enthusiastic about this project and possess the requisite skills, you are warmly encouraged to apply. The application deadline is November 1st. Please include the following documents:

  • A letter of motivation (1 A4)
  • Your CV
  • An excerpt of your grade list of both your bacherlor and master, including the names of the courses.
  • The contact details of three references (names and e-mail addresses).

If you are invited for an interview, you will be asked to write a brief research proposal (2000 words) outlining your ideas for the PhD position.

The interviews take place in person at the VU campus in Amsterdam.

Envisaged starting date: no later than January 13th, 2025

Submitting a diploma is part of the application process.

Applications received by e-mail will not be considered.

Acquisition in response to this advertisement is not appreciated.

Your function

Who becomes politically active and succeeds in a political career? The selection process for politicians can be visualized as a ladder, beginning with the initial ambition of citizens to run for office and culminating in the "survival" of national MPs at the top. This Vidi grant-funded project by the Dutch Research Council NWO, based at the Ethics, Governance and Society (EGS) department of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, explores how personality traits influence this selection process. At each step of the ladder, we find people who do or do not have the ambition to climb. Among those who aspire to climb, we find people that do and do not make it. How do these people differ from each other in terms of personality traits? And crucially, which personality traits do European citizens deem desirable traits for politicians?

This interdisciplinary project applies personality psychology models to provide unparalleled insights into the traits of (aspiring) politicians. Here we are particularly interested in so-called virtue related traits like honesty-humility and the traits from the Dark Triad (e.g., narcissism) and Light Triad (e.g., faith in humanity). The project examines the impact of these and other personality traits at several essential stages of the selection process: from the nascent ambition of citizens (the bottom of the ladder), to the progressive ambition of local politicians, to the promotion and retention of national MPs (the top of the ladder). At each step, we identify how personality traits shape political ambition and the fulfilment of this ambition. We also consider the role of (party) voters and selectorates within this selection process. The project team comprises a PhD candidate, a postdoc and the principal investigator (PI), Dr. Marc van de Wardt.

As a PhD candidate, you will write a dissertation, consisting of several research articles, on the personality traits that citizens across Europe deem desirable in politicians and the relationship between personality traits and political ambition (fulfillment) at the different steps of the selection process. While contributing to all aspects of the Vidi project, your key responsibility will be the panel study on local politicians tapping into personality traits, political ambition and ambition fulfilment. Designing and running this panel study will offer you the opportunity to put your unique stamp on this project. Additionally, you will contribute to a project led by the postdoc and PI, involving the collection of survey data on self-reported personality traits of politicians and coding their personality traits at a distance with a team of student coders. We will use this data to train an algorithm that can extract personality traits from inaugural speeches by politicians. Since this is a cross-national project, you will frequently be cooperating with researchers from other institutions.   

Duties of a PhD student

  • Analysing quantitative data on personality traits valued by citizens in politicians.
  • Designing and conducting a quantitative panel study on the ambition and success of local politicians
  • Contributing to data collection throughout all stages of the project, e.g., surveying national MPs online and in person, coding personality traits at a distance together with a team and collecting biographical background information on MPs
  • Writing and submitting scientific articles to peer-reviewed journals, forming the basis of your dissertation
  • Participating in research seminars where you discuss your work and build your professional network
  • Visiting (international) conferences where you present your work
  • Completing a number of PhD courses to enhance your research skills
  • Besides research tasks, you are expected to contribute to education by giving BA tutorials. Depending on the needs of the different programs that the department is involved in and your own capabilities, the (introductory) courses may be in political science, business administration or research methodology.  

Your profile

  • A master’s degree in political science or a related discipline that makes you well positioned to carry out this project
  • A research master’s degree and/or familiarity with political psychology is an asset
  • Proficiency in quantitative methods and research design
  • Programming skills (e.g., Stata, R, Python)
  • Commitment to enhancing research skills through further education
  • Excellent oral and written English skills, with a willingness to learn Dutch if necessary
  • Enthusiastic about working in an interdisciplinary team
  • Excellent communication and inter-personal skills to work effectively in a team, but also the skills to take initiative and to work independently
  • Aspiration to pursue an academic career
  • Willingness to relocate to the Netherlands, if applicable

What do we offer?

A challenging position in a socially engaged organisation. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world. And that is valuable. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:

  • a salary of € 2.872,00 (PhD) and maximum € 3.670,00 (PhD) gross per month in the fourth year, for a full-time employment
  • an employment contract of initially 1 year. If there is sufficient perspective, this will be extended to a total of 4 years. 

We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and arrangements. Some examples:

  • A full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
  • 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
  • solid pension scheme (ABP)
  • contribution to commuting expenses
  • optional model for designing a personalized benefits package

About us

EGS
The Department of Ethics, Governance, and Society (EGS) (https://vu.nl/en/about-vu/faculties/school-of-business-and-economics/departments/ethics-governance-and-society) is one of the departments of the School of Business and Economics (SBE) at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. EGS is a multidisciplinary hub of scholars focusing on behavioural, ethical, and political decision-making in organizations, institutions, markets, and society. The EGS scholars cover a wide expertise, from behavioural economics to health economics, political and social sciences, ethics and logic, and governance. What drives our work is the increasing need for expertise that spans across different disciplines in the face of many great societal challenges. The multidisciplinary nature of our research is reflected by the variety of top journals in which we publish, such as the Journal of Political Economy, Games and Economic Behaviour, Academy of Management Journal, American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, Harvard Business Review, American Journal of Sociology, and the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. Finally, the versatility of our team is reflected in our teaching. Within SBE we teach courses in the programs of Bedrijfskunde and International Business Administration on topics like experimental economics, organizational culture, and human resource management. Outside SBE, we offer courses for Amsterdam University College on themes such as International Relations and Comparative Public Policy. We are also involved in the Philosophy, Politics and Economics program within the VU.

School of Business and Economics
We at the School of Business and Economics (SBE) at VU Amsterdam bring together socially relevant teaching and research in the areas of business administration and economics. We focus on real-life issues that have a huge impact on society, economics and ecology: from robotics to big data, and from job market participation to change management.

Collaboration and cooperation, transparency and social responsibility are four keywords that embody our approach. Students, researchers and staff at SBE share real-world knowledge in order to devise solutions together to global economic and social challenges. In order to make a positive impact on the world, society and the lives of others.

Are you interested in joining SBE? You will work in a stimulating, dynamic and international environment with motivated colleagues dedicated to helping society make informed choices. SBE employs roughly 600 staff, with 7,250 students enrolled in the Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes and 1,700 executive students.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam stands for values-driven education and research. We are open-minded experts with the ability to think freely. - a broader mind. Maintaining an entrepreneurial perspective and concentrating on diversity, significance and humanity, we work on sustainable solutions with social impact. By joining forces, across the boundaries of disciplines, we work towards a better world for people and planet. Together we create a safe and respectful working and study climate, and an inspiring environment for education and research. Learn more about our codes of conduct

We are located on one physical campus, in the heart of Amsterdam's Zuidas business district, with excellent location and accessibility.  Over 6,150 staff work at the VU and over 31,000 students attend academic education.

Diversity
Diversity is the driving force of the VU. The VU wants to be accessible and receptive to diversity in disciplines, cultures, ideas, nationalities, beliefs, preferences and worldviews. We believe that trust, respect, interest and differences lead to new insights and innovation, to sharpness and clarity, to excellence and a broader understanding.

We stand for an inclusive community and believe that diversity and internationalisation contribute to the quality of education, research and our services.

Therefore, we are always searching for people whose backgrounds and experience contribute to the diversity of the VU community.

Questions about the vacancy?

Please contact

Marc van der Wardt

Associate professor

Interested

If you are enthusiastic about this project and possess the requisite skills, you are warmly encouraged to apply. The application deadline is November 1st. Please include the following documents:

  • A letter of motivation (1 A4)
  • Your CV
  • An excerpt of your grade list of both your bacherlor and master, including the names of the courses.
  • The contact details of three references (names and e-mail addresses).

If you are invited for an interview, you will be asked to write a brief research proposal (2000 words) outlining your ideas for the PhD position.

The interviews take place in person at the VU campus in Amsterdam.

Envisaged starting date: no later than January 13th, 2025

Submitting a diploma is part of the application process.

Applications received by e-mail will not be considered.

Acquisition in response to this advertisement is not appreciated.

Questions about the vacancy?

Please contact

Marc van der Wardt

Associate professor

Application procedure

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