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

Das Ende der Pfadabhängigkeit? Umwälzungen in den industriellen Beziehungen seit der Krise

Author(s)
Jörg Flecker, Bernadette Allinger, Christoph Hermann
Abstract

Trotz der durch Globalisierung und europäischen Binnenmarkt verschärften
Regimekonkurrenz haben sich die Verhandlungssysteme der industriellen Beziehungen in der EU vielfach als stabil erwiesen und eher pfadabhängig entwickelt. Seit der Finanz- und Wirtschafskrise ist in einer Reihe von Ländern eine beschleunigte Erosion zu beobachten, die auf eine Senkung der Löhne und eine Schwächung der Gewerkschaften hinausläuft. Eingriffe in Lohnfindungsprozesse erfolgen vor allem in jenen Ländern, die internationale Finanzhilfen beziehen und zu umfangreichen Reformen aufgefordert wurden. Diese Interventionen führen in den betroffenen Ländern zu einer Abkehr von der Pfadabhängigkeit und zu einer doppelten, erzwungenen Konvergenz: Einerseits zu einer Dezentralisierung kollektivvertraglicher Verhandlungssysteme in der Privatwirtschaft, andererseits zu einem verstärkten
Unilateralismus bzw. einer Rezentralisierung im öffentlichen Dienst.

Organisation(s)
Department of Sociology, Department of Government
External organisation(s)
Working Life Research Centre, Vienna
Journal
Sozialer Fortschritt: Unabhaengige Zeitschrift für Sozialpolitik
Volume
62
Pages
7- 13
No. of pages
5
ISSN
0038-609X
Publication date
2014
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
504002 Sociology of work, 506004 European integration
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Sociology and Political Science
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/fab86d1d-4969-491b-a04a-fa4ee786378f