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

Divided by the jab: affective polarisation based on COVID vaccination status

Author(s)
Markus Wagner, Jakob-Moritz Eberl
Abstract

Group-based affective polarisation can emerge around new issues that divide citizens. The public response to vaccines against COVID-19 provided a clear example of a new basis for group divides. Despite scientific consensus regarding the dangers of SARS-CoV-2 as well as the safety and effectiveness of available vaccinations, the public response to the COVID-19 pandemic was strongly politicised during the height of the health crisis. Positive social identities and negative out-group stereotyping developed around support or opposition to the vaccines. Panel survey data from Austria shows that vaccination identities are clearly identifiable and are related to extensive trait-based stereotyping of in- and out-group members. Moreover, we show that vaccination identities are linked to political identities and orientations that pre-date the politicisation of COVID-19 vaccines. Indeed, vaccination identities are more strongly related to political orientations than the decision to get vaccinated itself. Importantly, vaccination identities help us understand downstream attitudes, preferences, and behaviours related to the pandemic, even when controlling for other important predictors such as vaccination status and partisanship for anti-vaccine parties. We discuss the implications and generalizability of our findings beyond the context of the pandemic.

Organisation(s)
Department of Government, Department of Communication
Journal
Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties
No. of pages
24
ISSN
1745-7289
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/17457289.2024.2352449
Publication date
05-2024
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
506014 Comparative politics
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Sociology and Political Science
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/23c74036-17fe-41b1-9af1-53854b4b5377