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
From Traitors to Role Models: Rehabilitation and Memorialization of Wehrmacht Deserters in Austria
- Author(s)
- Peter Pirker, Johannes Kramer
- Abstract
Peter Pirker and Johannes Kramer offer a comprehensive account of 70 years of the politics of history and memory towards Wehrmacht deserters in Austria. Analyzing their social and legal discrimination after World War II, the chapter draws attention to the political and social processes that led to the rehabilitation of deserters and the erection of memorials commemorating the resistance and the persecution of disobedient soldiers, traitors, and other victims of National Socialist military justice. They discuss this conflictual transformation against the background of Cold War politics, the emergence of the peace movement and Green parties, and the general turnaround in European memory politics which has challenged national victim myths since the late 1980s. Finally, the study focuses on the campaign of a new alliance of actors from civil society, media, academia, and party politics which since 1999 has achieved two rehabilitation laws and the erection of a deserters’ monument in the political center of Vienna despite the opposition of right-wing parties and veterans’ associations.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Government, Department of Contemporary History
- Pages
- 59-85
- No. of pages
- 27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66496-5_3
- Publication date
- 2018
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 506010 Policy analysis
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cultural Studies, Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous), Social Sciences (miscellaneous), Linguistics and Language
- Sustainable Development Goals
- SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/39b59ac0-cdb7-4a8f-90c1-560aa161b47f