Kostas A. Lavdas is Professor of European Politics and Head, Department of Political Science, University of Crete, Greece where he was previously Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and Personnel and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences. Born in Athens in 1964, he studied political science, political sociology, public policy and international relations in Athens, the UK (at LSE and Manchester), and the USA (at MIT). He has published extensively in English, German and Greek on European politics, Greek politics and policy, comparative interest group politics and applied political theory. He has taught (as a Professor, an Associate Professor and a Senior Lecturer) and researched (as a Senior Research Fellow and a Research Associate) at several universities and research centers in Europe and the USA.