Maurits de Jongh is an assistant professor in the Ethics Institute, which is part of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies of Utrecht University. His research is motivated by a desire to understand the role of state power in promoting values like justice, efficiency, solidarity, and democracy. It is situated in the interdisciplinary field of philosophy, politics and economics (PPE).
Maurits鈥� research consists of two main projects: the political philosophy of public goods and the ethics of public administration. The first project examines the justification of government-provided public goods (like education, healthcare and defense), and analyzes how the benefits and burdens of their supply should be distributed among citizens. Whereas the first project investigates the what and why of state power (providing public goods), the second project aims to understand how civil servants should wield that power. It asks how the routines and decisions of the administrative state, which often escape democratic control, should not only rely on the technical expertise of bureaucrats but also on a shared ethos of public service.
Maurits received his PhD in 2019 from Sciences Po (Institut d鈥櫭﹖udes politiques de Paris), and was previously a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Advanced Study 麓Justitia Amplificata麓 of Goethe University Frankfurt, a lecturer at Leiden University, and a Fox fellow at Yale University.
Maurits is program director of PPE Utrecht, where he teaches courses on the welfare state, and on ethics and public policy.