Dr Benjamin Leruth has been awarded an Open Competition XS grant for his project Exploring the Politics of Long-Termism (EXPLOT).

The Dutch Research Council awards these grants of max €50.000 to researchers with a promising idea or an innovative and high-risk initiative. Dr Benjamin Leruth is assistant professor in European Politics and Society at the Faculty of Arts and theme director of the Agricola theme Democracy & Governance.

Thinking long-term difficult for citizens and policy-makers

Long-term challenges such as climate change and the ageing population are becoming increasingly urgent to address. Yet, thinking long-term is one of the most difficult tasks citizens and policy-makers face, as they deal with uncertainties, risks, and electoral constraints in a world increasingly affected by short-term crises of all kinds. Our understanding of political long-termism, namely the conscious choice to prioritize the future consequences of today’s political actions and decisions over their short-term benefits, remains limited.

The project Exploring the Politics of Long-Termism aims at understanding how and why politicians and citizens favour political long-termism. It will also determine whether different ‘cultures’ of political long-termism coexist across Europe, and whether these impact political collaboration and policy outcomes.

Online experimental survey in five countries

As part of this project, Leruth will run an online experimental survey in five countries and he will interview elected representatives on their views towards political long-termism. The results of the project will be presented at a public event.