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

"Dann bin ich ja ein Mörder!"

Author(s)
Walter Manoschek
Abstract

Am 29. März 1945 erschossen drei Angehörige der Waffen-SS-Division „Wiking“ mindestens 57 ungarisch-jüdische Zwangsarbeiter im burgenländischen Deutsch Schützen. Einer der mutmaßlichen Täter hieß Adolf Storms. 63 Jahre nach dem Massenmord gelang es dem Autor, Storms und zwei weitere Tatbeteiligte HJ-Führer zu interviewen. Gespräche mit Adolf Storms, den beiden HJ-Führern und drei Juden, die das Massaker überlebt haben, bilden das Grundgerüst des Films und des ergänzenden Buches.
Es wird zum einen das Mordgeschehen in Deutsch Schützen rekonstruiert. Nicht weniger spannend zeigt das Fallbeispiel Deutsch Schützen exemplarisch den justiziellen Umgang Österreichs mit NS-Tätern.
Adolf Storms wurde im Herbst 2009 in Dortmund wegen Mordes und Beihilfe zum Mord angeklagt. Er verstarb kurz vor Prozessbeginn im Juni 2010.

Die Literaturnobelpreisträgerin Elfriede Jelinek schrieb einen Kommentar zu diesem Film. "Ich finde diesen Film großartig, vor allem weil er so sachlich ist."

Organisation(s)
Department of Government
Publication date
03-2015
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
506008 Conflict research
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/4df263b2-fe4d-4a51-a382-9303d914772f