Comparative Politics - Profile

Research

Research focuses on the comparative study of contemporary democracies. It covers the micro-level of individual citizens as well as the macro-level of political institutions and processes.

Micro-level research deals with political orientations and political behaviour of mass publics. It concentrates on (a) types of welfare-state cultures and the significance of these cultures for the legitimation of democratic regimes; (b) political support and the cultural consolidation of democracies in Central and Eastern Europe; (c) the formation of attitudes on European integration in old and new member states of the European Union; and (d) the explanation of electoral behaviour in the young democracies in Central and Eastern Europe.
Macro-level research addresses (a) the performance of democracies, in particular of majoritarian and negotiation democracies; and (b) the structure, determinants, and effects of globalisation processes in democratic and non-democratic political systems.

Teaching

Teaching at the basic and advanced level covers a broad range of comparative politics: comparative government, comparative public policy, comparative political culture, and comparative political behaviour.

Teaching for the first- and second-year students is fairly standardised to ensure a common ground of basics in the field of comparative politics. A number of introductory courses on comparative politics are offered each semester. They cover major theories and methods of comparative politics, the analysis of political systems of selected countries and the European Union, as well as basic concepts and empirical results of the major subfields. These courses are complemented by an introductory lecture that is held every other semester.
On the advanced level, the topics of our courses and lectures mostly reflect our main fields of research: democratic theory and research on democracy at the level of individual citizens as well as institutions and processes. Additionally, we regularly offer research seminars, running over two semesters, where students are enabled to do comparative and empirical research on their own. These seminars use either comparative survey data (e.g. European Social Survey) or aggregate data.