prof. dr. J. (Ko) de Ridder

Jacobus de Ridder (1949) holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the Free University of Amsterdam, a master’s degree in public administration from the same university and the degree of doctor of law from Gro­ningen University (1990).

From 1974 till 1982 he was a research fellow with the Public Law and Public Administration Research Group of the Free University of Amster­dam. His main research acti­vities during this period concerned three major pro­jects: Urban administration and urban renewal, Complementary intergovernmental relations, Power in intergovernmental relations.

From 1982 till 1990 he was an assistant professor, and since 1990 he was associate professor of Public Administration at the Law Faculty of Groningen University. In 2003 he was appointed professor of public administration at the VIDE chair for administrative oversight.

From 1987-1989 he wrote his doctoral thesis on the analysis and explanation of intergovernmental oversight. For the academic year 1991-1992 he was awarded a travel stipend by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Besides teaching a number of courses as a visiting professor at Central Michigan University , he spent time at the University of Wisconsin Law School and the Institute of Law and Society at the University of California in Berkeley . In 2002 he taught sociology of law at the University of Western Ontario Law School. He did comparative research on political control of public bureaucracy (e.g. a comparison of the legislative veto in the USA and The Netherlands. He supervised a number of doctoral dissertation projects at the University of Groningen , and he also served on a doctorate committee at Temple University .

His teaching experience includes courses in Administrative Law and Administrative Practice, Intergovernmental Relations, Comparative Government, Behaviour of Law and Methods of Social Research, and graduate research seminars on a variety of topics such as Evaluation of Law, Politico-Administrative Relations, Administrative Oversight and Police Organization.