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
Online Campaigning by Austrian Political Candidates: Determinants of Using Personal Websites, Facebook, and Twitter
- Author(s)
- Martin Dolezal
- Abstract
Online campaigning has become an important feature of contemporary elections. In European democracies characterized by strong political parties, Internet use also strengthens existing trends toward more candidate-centered campaigning. Focusing on the 2013 Austrian national election, this article systematically compares the use of three different online platforms: personal websites, Facebook, and Twitter. Based on candidates' sociodemographic and political characteristics as well as contextual factors, the results show that male candidates, candidates from moderate parties, and those on the first list positions are more likely to engage in online campaigning. Differences between the three platforms exist with respect to personal websites, which are primarily used by incumbents, and Twitter, which is mostly used by candidates in urban constituencies. Furthermore, young candidates are by far more likely to use both social media sites while no such generational gap exists regarding personal websites. Individualized online campaigning has thus become a strategy for a substantial number of candidates who share specific characteristics.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Government
- Journal
- Policy & Internet
- Volume
- 7
- Pages
- 103-119
- No. of pages
- 17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/poi3.83
- Publication date
- 03-2015
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 506012 Political systems
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health(social science), Health Policy, Computer Science Applications, Public Administration
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/70199ff6-0ef1-4711-bae8-b21437f2414f