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The Master’s programme in History of Politics and Society provides a thorough understanding of the historical roots of today's major political and societal issues. We educate historians and future advisors and policymakers who contribute to solving the challenges at the top of the political and social agenda.

About the programme

In this Master's programme you will study the historical development of democracy, civil society and economic inequality as well as the interaction between politics and policies in an international comparative perspective. The programme focuses largely on 19th through 21st century topics and has an interdisciplinary approach: you will combine historical research with concepts and explanations derived from the social sciences. You will also gain hands-on interaction with present-day institutions as part of the Community Engaged Learning approach of our flagship course “Politics in the Hague” and more generally within the framework of our Internship programme.

Language of instruction

The core courses of the programme are offered in English only. For the other courses, you can choose between Dutch-language and English-language courses. Dutch-speaking students who take English-language courses with a Dutch-speaking lecturer may write papers and assignments in Dutch if they wish.

Why this programme in Utrecht?

Career development

The programme offers you the opportunity to apply historical and social science insights to current affairs and issues relevant to official policies. The Internship or the Politics and Society Lab provide excellent opportunities to do so, as does the Community Engaged Learning component of our main core course 'Politics in the Hague'. Other courses also pay explicit attention to the application of insights through course assignments and invited guest speakers.

Institutions

In our Master’s programme History of Politics and Society, you will develop an understanding of why societies have developed in such divergent ways by examining institutions in the fields of democracy, politics and policy making, and the organisation of the market. These institutions form ‘the rules of the game’: they give our present society its form, but they are also the result of a historical process. The programme will provide you with insight into how these institutions, which are so influential in modern society, have developed, and into their functions and consequences.

Theory-driven and comparative

In this programme, you will learn to use theories and concepts from the social sciences plus a comparative approach to examine the mechanisms that can explain the remarkable similarities and differences between cities, regions, states, continents, and historical periods. 

The theoretical and comparative elements of the programme are highlighted in the ‘Capitalism and Colonialism’ elective. The course runs for seven weeks in study period 1, and each week explores a theme through comparative study of colonies in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The themes include institutions and comparative development, trade and conquest, markets and globalization, health and welfare, agriculture and environmental management, as well as protest and decolonization. Students are asked to look at these themes by investigating a variety of stakeholders in the colonial project. As part of their assignment for the course, students write a paper on a topic of their choice that is both theoretically grounded and comparatively situated. See here a compilation of some of the papers written by the 2024/25 cohort. 

After graduation

After completing their studies, many graduates pursue careers engaged with current-day political and societal issues, for instance as researchers or policy makers in public or semi-public organisations, at NGOs, in the business world, or in media. There are several job market segments where there is a need for people who can tie together the past, present, and future. 

I really liked the programme’s focus on ‘institutions’ because I was interested in working in government or the public sector after studying.