Credit: Anna Logue
Political Science
The CDSS Doctoral Program in Political Science offers courses in topical areas of research and advanced methods. The latter provide students with the tools for rigorous and thorough theoretical and empirical analysis such as:
- theories of rational and social choice
- game theory
- Bayesian learning models
- advanced quantitative methods, including multivariate analysis (OLS) and maximum likelihood estimation.
Research at the Department of Political Science
Research at the Department of Political Science is characterized by an empirical-analytical approach. It uses quantitative methods for data analysis and covers a broad range of topics. Empirical-analytical research with a quantitative focus, methodological diversity as well as interdisciplinarity are the linchpins of research conducted within the department and the School of Social Sciences.
Main research fields:
- Elections and party competition in established democracies, but also processes of democratization and political decision-making in other forms of government
- European integration process
- National conflicts and civil wars
- Drivers and consequences of reform processes
Research at the chairs of Political Economy, Political Sociology and Political Psychology acts as a bridge between political science on the one hand and sociology and psychology on the other, which are closely related fields.
Research in the subject area of political science is usually not conducted at the chairs themselves, but at the Mannheim Center for European Social Research (MZES) and the Collaborative Research Centre SFB 884 “Political Economy of Reforms”. Furthermore the School of Social Sciences closely collaborates with GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences and the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW).