Research
Research
In its research and teaching, the Department of Government primarily focuses on comparative and Austrian politics. Its research is concerned with political behaviour, political actors, such as political parties and politicians, political institutions, the processes governed by these institutions, as well as their outcomes. It includes work on political participation, voting behaviour, parties and party competition, coalition politics and Austrian politics in general and is mostly based on rationalist and behavioural approaches.
Our goal is to conduct high-level, internationally competitive research in the area of Comparative Politics with the collaboration of international project partners and research networks. At the Faculty of Social Sciences the department is mainly engaged in the key research area ''Political Competition and Communication: Democratic Representation in Changing Societies'.
The department’s approach places it in the discipline’s empirical-analytical core and is mostly based on quantitative social science methods. To map empirical phenomena accurately, researcher in the department focus on the continuous development of survey design, as well as on the analysis of empirical data by applying the best suited statistical model. The department aims to achieve the best work on Austrian politics and to make important contributions to the international academic literature on Comparative Government and Politics.
An overview of current publications and activities at the department can be found below and on the personal websites of our team.
Political Institutions
Institutions play a key role in political systems, as they define the framework conditions for political decisions...
Political Representation
Political representation describes the institutional and social processes and practices that connect citizens and voters to...
Party Competition
Party competition is an essential component of democratic systems and describes the competition between political parties for votes...
Infrastructural Projects
Infrastructural projects are an essential component of scientific research, as they create the basis for long-term data collection...
Political Behaviour
Political behaviour deals with the individual and collective attitudes and actions of citizens in a political context...
Cooperations
Cooperations are a central component of scientific research, as they promote the exchange of knowledge, resources and...
Publications
This time it’s different? Effects of the Eurovision Debate on young citizens and its consequence for EU democracy – evidence from a quasi-experiment in 24 countries
- Author(s)
- Jürgen Maier, Thorsten Faas, Berthold Rittberger, Jessica Fortin-Rittberger, Kalliope Agapioulosifides, Susan Banducci, Paolo Bellucci, Magnus Blomgren, Inta Brikse, Karol Chwedczuk-Szulc, Marina Costa Lobo, Mikolaj Czesnik, Anastasia Deligiaouri, Tomaz Dezelan, Wouter de Nooy, Aldo De Virgilio, Florin Fesnic, Danica Fink-Hafner, Marijana Grbesa, Carmen Greab, Andrija Henjak, David Nicolas Hopmann, David Johann, Gábor Jelenfi, Jurate Kavaliauskaite, Zoltan Kmetty, Sylvia Kritzinger, Pedro Magalhaes, Vincent Meyer, Katia Mihailova, Mihail Mirchev, Ville Pitkänen, Aine Ramonaite, Theresa Reidy, Marek Rybar, Karmen Sammut, José Santana Pereira, Guna Spurava, Lia-Paschalla Spyridou, Adriana Stefanel, Václav Stetka, Aleksander Surdej, Róbert Tardos, Dimitris Trimithiotis, Christiano Vezzoni, Aneta Vilagi, Gergo Zavecz
- Abstract
For the very first time in EU history, the 2014 EP elections provided citizens with the opportunity to influence the nomination of the Commission President by casting a vote for the main Europarties' lead candidates'. By subjecting the position of the Commission President to an open political contest, many experts have formulated the expectation that heightened political competition would strengthen the weak electoral connection between EU citizens and EU legislators, which some consider a root cause for the EU's lack of public support. In particular, this contest was on display in the so-called Eurovision Debate', a televised debate between the main contenders for the Commission President broadcasted live across Europe. Drawing on a quasi-experimental study conducted in 24 EU countries, we find that debate exposure led to increased cognitive and political involvement and EU support among young citizens. Unfortunately, the debate has only reached a very small audience.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Government
- External organisation(s)
- Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, University of Exeter, University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Paris-Lodron Universität Salzburg, Universität Koblenz-Landau, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, University of Cyprus, Università Degli Studi di Siena, Umeå University, University of Latvia (LU), University of Wrocław, Universidade de Lisboa, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Western Macedonia University of Applied Sciences, University of Ljubljana, University of Amsterdam (UvA), University of Bologna, Babeș-Bolyai University, University of Zagreb, Eötvös Loránd University Budapest, Vilnius University (VU), Université Nice-Sophia-Antipolis, Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", University of Turku, University College Cork, Masaryk University, University of Malta, University of Bucharest, Charles University Prague, Cracow University of Economics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Università degli Studi di Trento, Comenius University Bratislava, Central European University Budapest
- Journal
- Journal of European Public Policy
- Volume
- 25
- Pages
- 606-629
- No. of pages
- 24
- ISSN
- 1350-1763
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2016.1268643
- Publication date
- 01-2017
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 506014 Comparative politics
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Sociology and Political Science, Public Administration
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/199c77de-d5b3-49b3-969b-1d9459576a3c