Emeritus Professor of Political Science and Administration at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). Graduate and Doctorate in Law. He studied Political Science at the National Foundation of Political Sciences-IEP, in Paris, and Business Management at the ESADE Business School.

He was the first Dean (1985-1990) of the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology at the UAB and Rector of the University as well (1990-1994). Visiting researcher at the National Foundation of Political Science in Paris and at the Universities of Essex and Cambridge (UK). From 2008 to 2012, he chaired the Catalan Institute for the Evaluation of Public Policies (IVALUA).

He focuses his academic activity and publications on the teaching of political science, behavioural and electoral systems, local government and the quality of democracies. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the European Consortium for Political Research and has chaired the Spanish Association of Political Science and Administration. He has participated in institutional politics as a director of the association Ciudadanos por el Cambio (1999-2007) and as a member of the Catalan Parliament (1999-2006). He was also Minister of Justice in the Government of Catalonia (2003-2006). Since 2020, he has chaired the foundation Catalunya-Europa (Barcelona).