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

Sollen Menschen präventiv eingesperrt werden?

Author(s)
Julian Aichholzer, Sylvia Kritzinger, Oliver Rathkolb, Sybille Steinbacher, Petra Ziegler
Abstract

Nicht zuletzt mit dem Terroranschlag in Wien im November 2020 hat sich die Debatte rund um eine Art Sicherungshaft oder Präventivhaft für Menschen, die eine potenzielle Gefahr für den Staat bzw. die Gesellschaft darstellen, neu entfacht. Der Beitrag zeigt, dass Ende 2019 zwar Ansichten darüber gespalten sind, jedoch eine relative Mehrheit in der österreichischen Bevölkerung das präventive Einsperren von potenziell gefährlichen Personen für gerechtfertigt hielt. Gleichzeitig gibt es in dieser Einschätzung große ideologische Unterschiede, die die Herausforderungen für die politische Durchsetzung einer solchen Maßnahme offenbaren.

Organisation(s)
Department of Government, Department of Contemporary History
External organisation(s)
Fritz Bauer Institut, Wiener Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Bildungsforschung
Publication date
2020
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
506012 Political systems, 504007 Empirical social research
Keywords
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/b548b032-b539-4112-b237-0a832dd5b38e