Paul Frissen is professor of Public Administration at Tilburg University, dean and chairman of the board of the Netherlands School of Public Administration in The Hague, and member of the Council for Societal Development, an advisory body for the cabinet and parliament. In 1989, Frissen received a PhD with honour with a thesis on bureaucratic culture and computerisation.

In 2007, he published De staat van verschil. Een kritiek van de gelijkheid (The State of Difference. A Critique of Equality, 2007, which had its fourth edition in 2010. His latest book is Gevaar verplicht. Over de noodzaak van aristocratische politiek (The Obligation of Danger. On the Necessity of Aristocratic Politics, 2009).