Political Systems
Main research areas

Main research areas

Research area „Mixed electoral systems“

 

While there is a broad consensus that electoral systems are crucial factors for the quality of democracies, the question of which electoral systems should be preferred over others is hard to answer, since electoral system shall fulfill various, partially conflicting demands at the same time. With a focus on mixed electoral systems, we compare the functionality of different system types in varying contexts on national and sub-national levels.
 
Projects in in this research area have been financially supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) between 2012 and 2015.
Recent publications in this field are:

  • Linhart, Eric, Johannes Raabe and Patrick Statsch (2019): Mixed-member proportional electoral systems – the best of both worlds? Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties 29(1): 21-40.
  • Jankowski, Michael, Eric Linhart and Markus Tepe (2019): Welches Wahlsystem wollen die Wähler? Evidenz von einem Conjoint-Experiment, Politische Vierteljahresschrift 60(2): 221-243.
  • Raabe, Johannes and Eric Linhart (2018): Which electoral systems succeed at providing proportionality and concentration? Promising designs and risky tools, European Political Science Review 10(2): 167-190.
  • Linhart, Eric and Johannes Raabe (2018): Measuring party system concentration including the cabinet level, Historical Social Research 43(2): 253-276.

Research area “Parties’ office and policy motivations in coalition formation processes”

 

Recent coalition theories account for both parties’ office and policy motivations. Although some of the respective models have been developed in the 1990s already, their empirical corroboration is still a field of research with many open questions. Our research focus contributes to such questions, primarily with regard to coalition formation in Germany. Beyond empirical analyses, we develop and refine models of coalition formation. Such refinements largely follow two strands. First, the above mentioned theories treat offices and policy as independent of each other, although ministers strongly influence policy outputs within their portfolios. This connection between offices and policy has to be taken in account by advanced theories. Second, existing coalition theories largely ignore that parties are not only motivated by offices and policy, but also by votes. We refine coalition models in this regard.
 
Projects in in this research area have been financially supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) between 2008 and 2012.
Recent publications in this field are:

  • Linhart, Eric (2018): Coalition building on the federal and on the Länder level in Germany, in: Albala, Adrián and Josep M. Reniu (Hrsg.): Coalition Politics and Federalism. Cham, Springer International: 33-51.
  • Linhart, Eric and Susumu Shikano (2015): Koalitionsbildung nach der Bundestagswahl 2013: Parteien im Spannungsfeld zwischen Ämter-, Politik- und Stimmenmotivation, in: Korte, Karl-Rudolf (Hrsg.): Die Bundestagswahl 2013. Analysen der Wahl-, Parteien-, Kommunikations- und Regierungsforschung. Wiesbaden, Springer VS: 457-484.
  • Linhart, Eric and Johannes Raabe (2015): Die Stärken unterschiedlicher Ministerien aus der Sicht von Politikern, Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft 25(2): 159-188.
  • Raabe, Johannes and Eric Linhart (2015): Does substance matter? A model of qualitative portfolio allocation and application to German state governments between 1990 and 2010, Party Politics 21(3): 481-492.

Research area “Voting as a rational decision”

 

The analysis of strategic voting is of growing interest since some years. From a normative point of view, the prevalence of incentives to vote strategically can be seen as problematic: If such incentives exist, a voter has to make a hard choice between the alternative she likes most and the option which maximizes her (expected) utility. Further, the rational choice might be hard to detect in multi-party settings. Our research in this area therefore contributes to questions regarding incentives for strategic voting. Among others, we analyze in which electoral situations voters are or are not likely to detect utility maximizing choices, if and how coalition signals moderate this effect, and under which circumstances voters tend to vote strategically.

Recent publications in this field are:

  • Linhart, Eric and Johannes Raabe (2018): Different rationales of coalition formation and incentives for strategic voting, Applied Mathematics 9(7): 836-860.
  • Linhart, Eric and Markus Tepe (2015): Rationales Wählen in Mehrparteiensystemen mit Koalitionsregierungen. Eine laborexperimentelle Untersuchung, Politische Vierteljahresschrift 56(1): 44-76.
  • Bytzek, Evelyn, Thomas Gschwend, Sascha Huber, Eric Linhart and Michael Meffert (2012): Koalitionssignale und ihre Wirkungen auf Wahlentscheidungen, Politische Vierteljahresschrift (Sonderheft 45/2011): 393-418.

Research area “Estimation of party positions”

 

Knowledge about party positions in policy spaces is necessary for many political science sub-fields. The study of political parties needs such information in order to categorize parties. Coalition research needs estimations of party positions in order to evaluate different possible coalitions with regard to parties’ policy motivation. An electoral studies must refer to party positions when they contribute to the question of how strongly policy congruence determines voting decisions. Different methods to estimate party positions, however, are confronted with their own limitations. Further, they lead to – at least slightly – varying results. The research focus at hand therefore aims to develop appropriate methods for the estimation of party positions and compare different methods’ results.

Recent publications in this field are:

  • Linhart, Eric (2018): Zur programmatischen Kohäsion der Fraktionen im Europäischen Parlament, in: Hilz, Wolfram and Antje Nötzold (Hrsg.): Die Zukunft Europas in einer Welt im Umbruch. Wiesbaden, Springer VS: 163-183.
  • Linhart, Eric (2017): Politische Positionen der AfD auf Landesebene: Eine Analyse auf Basis von Wahl-O-Mat-Daten, Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen 48(1): 102-123.
  • Linhart, Eric (2010): Die Bedeutung der Landwirtschaft in Wahlprogrammen von Agrarparteien, Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft 4(1): 79-103.
  • Linhart, Eric and Susumu Shikano (2009): Ideological signals of German parties in a multi-dimensional space: An estimation of party preferences using the CMP data, German Politics 18(3): 301-322.

Research area “Empirical lobby group research”

 

Lobby groups influence policy via a plethora of channels. Among others, they send experts to parliamentary committees, they officially comment bills in ministries, and they affect public debates in the media. While the lobby groups have been primarily researched from a theoretical view for a long time – in particular in Germany –, more studies contribute to empirical questions recently. For example, researchers need to know which lobby groups are powerful in which policy fields, which stakeholders have similar interests and could form advocacy coalitions, or which connections can be found between lobby groups and single parties. At the Chemnitz University of Technology, we also contribute to such questions.

Recent publications in this field are:

  • Hüttemann, Niclas and Eric Linhart (2022): Interessenvermittlung in den Ausschüssen des Deutschen Bundestages. Eine Erweiterung und Fortschreibung für die 18. Wahlperiode (2013 bis 2017), Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen 53(3): 507–526.
  • Bahnsen, Oke and Eric Linhart (2018): Politische Diskurse in Print- und Online-Medien. Eine empirische Analyse am Beispiel der Novelle des Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetzes 2014, Zeitschrift für Diskursforschung 6(3): 277-305.
  • Bahnsen, Oke, Eric Linhart and Jale Tosun (2016): Wer mit wem in der Energiepolitik? Eine Analyse des öffentlichen Diskurses über die Novelle des Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetzes 2014, der moderne staat 9(1): 109-134.
  • Dhungel, Anna-Katharina and Eric Linhart (2014): Interessenvermittlung in den Ausschüssen des Deutschen Bundestages, Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen 45(4): 743-762.