Jacques Thomassen is a member of the Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences. His main research interests are in democratic theory, political representation, electoral behaviour and legitimacy. He is author and editor of numerous publications including The European Voter (Oxford University Press 2005), The Legitimacy of the European Union after Enlargement (Oxford University Press 2009), and (with Peter Mair) Political Representation and European Union Governance. He was a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Michigan, Harvard, Mannheim, the Australian National University and the European University Institute in Florence. He is a co-founder of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES). He is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of Twente