This article discusses the problems and opportunities facing any ‘young’ political scientist working – or wishing to work – in Spanish universities. Starting with a brief description of the delayed development of political science in Spain, it then explains some of the problems facing those seeking jobs in research, before analysing the ongoing reforms of the university recruitment process and the consequences for political scientists. Although there remain many problems in Spanish university recruitment procedures, such as a tendency towards hiring internal candidates at the expense of ‘outsiders’, there are signs that reform is bringing about a slow improvement, and is gradually ensuring a greater degree of excellence.

This article argues that after the initial expansion of departments and postgraduate courses during and after the mid-1990s in Greece, we are now witnessing the first signs that the academic environment is unable to absorb young academics entering the field. A long ‘waiting list’ of young PhDs, combined with a lack of public funding for new posts, creates a rather negative picture for the future of young Greek political scientists.

We describe the current career system for young political scientists in Germany academia. The situation is still dominated by the apprenticeship model in which young PhD graduates undertake a second supervised piece of research. Recently introduced junior professorships are still too few and far between to have a major impact and represent only a half-hearted effort. The current system is still unattractive, unproductive, and uncompetitive. A lecturer tenure-track system would shift insecurity to the beginning of a career and would have built-in incentives and resources for young political scientists to engage in high-quality research.

The purpose of the article is to assess the risks and opportunities of entry into the political science profession in Italy. Part one contains some brief reflections on the discipline and its institutionalisation. Part two offers an overview of the main features of the recruitment process and its national peculiarities. Part three looks into the current problems facing young Italian scholars who wish to become academics. Part four concludes with some suggestions to young political scientists who have much hope but also many doubts about how to cope with permanent uncertainty regarding their career development.

This article analyses the recruitment criteria, career patterns and social hierarchies of Dutch political science. Dutch political science is highly internationalised and outward-looking. About one-fifth to one-third of most departments is non-Dutch and English language courses are common. Two MA programmes are offered solely in English, and Dutch political science was among the first comprehensively to introduce the BA/MA system. Research is also internationally oriented. Promotion is increasingly based on merit although there are few women in the higher ranks. Working conditions are generally fine and young scholars enjoy a relatively high level of autonomy and reasonable rates of pay. The major hurdle is achieving a permanent position.

This article explores the employment opportunities, working conditions and the salary one can expect to encounter when starting out as a newly qualified academic in Ireland or the UK. The article evaluates these issues through a personal perspective and concludes that that's life! If one wants to break into academic life in either Ireland or the UK one should not expect a smooth journey, however, it is well worth it.

Most European universities lag behind the best universities in the Anglo-Saxon world. A key challenge is to raise resources per student in Europe to US levels. The Lisbon agenda demands fundamental reform of the European university system in order to enhance efficiency, yet avoid grade inflation, to foster more competition, to allow for much larger private contributions accompanied by income-contingent student loans, and to attract larger numbers of foreign students. European universities will be pushed to compete with each other, to offer better incentives and to generate substantially more income. Universities will be stimulated to provide sufficient diversity and quality to meet the demands of a growing and diverse student body. Their ambition should be to educate the best minds in society irrespective of whether their parents are rich or poor, academically inclined or uneducated. A shift from grants to loans and an increase in tuition fees are justified by high returns. Reform should lead to a better and more equitable system of European universities.

The Japanese political science community has grown considerably in recent years and has succeeded in achieving internationalisation. However, there exists a significant generation gap concerning views on science, in particular, concerning the role of values in the social sciences. This has led to contrasting assessments of the history and achievements of political science. This article provides some information concerning political science and the community of political scientists in Japan, knowledge of which is lacking in Europe.

This article examines Jean Blondel's contribution to the development of European – and more generally of contemporary – political science. He is primarily associated with the European Consortium for Political Research, of which he was Founding Director 1970–1979. Crucially important although the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) is, this undervalues the considerable intellectual influence he has exerted over the discipline at crucial points in it is evolution, primarily in terms of comparative research, classification, and data collection. His institutional and intellectual achievements have made him one of the most influential political scientists of the late twentieth century, fittingly recognised by the award of the Johan Skytte Prize in 2004.