Assistant Professorship Political Science Research Methods
Research methods are the tools of political science for answering empirical questions in all subfields of the discipline. In teaching, the assistant professorship introduces students to quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and analysis. In research, the focus is on comparative research on political attitudes and behavior. Current research topics include political participation, youth and politics, direct democracy, and election forecasting. Methodologically, the application of experimental and quasi-experimental approaches in individual and aggregate data analysis plays a prominent role. Furthermore, a further methodological focus lies on primary data collection through population surveys.
News from Science, Media & the Public
New publication and study: The article "Cleavage politics, polarization and participation in Western Europe" (together with Endre Borbáth and Sven Hutter, Freie Universität Berlin) was published in the journal West European Politics. In addition, the project report "Mehr Wählen wagen? - Ungleichheiten beim "Wählen mit 16" und ihre Folgen" (together with Thorsten Faas, Freie Universität Berlin) on the Youth Voting Study 2021 project as a working paper of the Otto Brenner Foundation. Both articles are freely available online.
Repeat election and voting age 16: In an interview with Neues Deutschland, Jun.-Prof. Arndt Leininger spoke about the election rerun in Berlin and, together with Thorsten Faas, he commented on the recent lowering of the voting age for European elections to 16 from a political science perspective in the Verfassungsblog.
New Project: The research project "Polarization through and in referendums: mapping polarization within and beyond the party system" is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) under the Emmy-Noether-Program. The first funding phase starts in October 2022 and runs until September 2025.
New publication: „Do approval quorums reduce turnout in referendums?“ (co-authored with Thomas Marx, Humboldt University of Berlin) has been published in Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft (open access).
New publication: „Temporary disenfranchisement: negative side-effects of lowering the voting age“ (co-authored with Marie-Lou Sohnius, University of Mannheim, Thorsten Faas, Free University Berlin, Sigrid Roßteutscher, Goethe University Frankfurt, and Armin Schäfer, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz) has been published in American Political Science Review (open access).
