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.

Publications

Chronologie zur Corona-Krise in Österreich – Teil 1: Vorgeschichte, der Weg in den Lockdown, die akute Phase und wirtschaftliche Folgen

Author(s)
Markus Pollak, Nikolaus Kowarz, Julia Partheymüller
Abstract

Nachdem es Ende Februar in Österreich die ersten bestätigten Corona-Fälle gab, ergriff die Bundesregierung ab Mitte März drastische Maßnahmen zur Eindämmung des Coronavirus. Am 26. März wurde laut epidemiologischer Kurve die Höchstzahl an neu bestätigten Infektionsfällen an einem einzelnen Tag verzeichnet. Anschließend wurde Anfang April der Höhepunkt der aktiven, bestätigten Infektionsfälle erreicht. Von da an war die Anzahl der bestätigten Corona-Fälle rückläufig. Bis Mitte April blieb das öffentliche Leben in Österreich durch die Maßnahmen stark eingeschränkt. Die Arbeitslosigkeit stieg ab Ende März sprunghaft an. Nach Ostern kam es zu ersten Lockerungsmaßnahmen.

Organisation(s)
Department of Economic Sociology, Department of Government
Publication date
06-2020
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
506012 Political systems, 506011 Political history, 303011 Health policy
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/3803f66c-45fd-4d8e-bd2d-3203e5b1ec87