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
How and why party position estimates from manifestos, expert, and party elite surveys diverge
- Author(s)
- Ecker Alejandro, Marcelo Jenny, Wolfgang C. Müller, Katrin Praprotnik
- Abstract
This paper examines the validity of three approaches to estimate party positions on the general left– right and EU dimensions. We newly introduce party elite data from the comprehensive IntUne survey and cross-validate it with existing expert survey and manifesto data. The general left– right estimates generated by elites and experts show a higher congruence than those derived from party manifestos; neither measure clearly materializes as more valid regarding EU positions. We identify which factors explain diverging estimates. For instance, disagreement among experts has greater impact than their mere number. The substantial centrist bias of the manifesto estimates persists even when alternative documents are used. Low response rates among elites have no systematic detrimental effect on the validity of party position estimates.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Government
- External organisation(s)
- University for Continuing Education Krems, Universität Mannheim, Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck
- Journal
- Party Politics
- Volume
- 28
- Pages
- 528-540
- No. of pages
- 13
- ISSN
- 1354-0688
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068821990298
- Publication date
- 02-2021
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 506014 Comparative politics
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Political Science and International Relations, Sociology and Political Science
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/cc40c20c-18e2-41a1-b3d3-a724139ab0cd