Bas Denters (1954) is full professor of Public Administration in the Faculty of Behavioral, Management & Social Sciences at the University of Twente (Enschede, The Netherlands). He is the Scientific Director of the Netherlands Institute for Government (NIG): the KNAW accredited Dutch – Flemish graduate school for Political Science and Public Administration. Since 2013 he is first alternate delegate of the Group of Independent Experts on the European Charter for Local Self-Government of the Council of Europe. From 2000-2010 he was the convener of the Standing Group on Local Politics and Government (LOGOPOL) of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR). He is member of the Board of the European Urban Research Association. He is the managing editor of Bestuurswetenschappen, the oldest Dutch public administration and member of the editorial board of Local Government Studies, the leading European journal in the field of local politics and governance. He has published on issues of urban governance, citizen initiatives, citizen participation and local democracy more generally.