210128 SE M11: Research Practice (2016W)

Modern democracy today is fundamentally representative democracy. A set of representatives is chosen through elections where citizens can select representatives based on their past performance, their policy promises and their leadership capabilities. The centrality of elections to modern democracy has led researchers and practitioners to focus on these events as the fundamental determinant of representation. Thereby, the equality of representation is central for a high quality of representation, in the sense that all citizens’ views are equally represented. However, various forms of inequality in representation exist throughout modern democracies, such as economic, gender, or social inequality, which could lead to Politikverdrossenheit amongst voters.
In this research practice seminar we will thus deal with representation and inequality. How do citizens get represented? Are there inequalities in representation? If so, on which dimensions? And which consequences do they have on the citizens’ evaluation of the quality of democracy?
These questions will lead us through the research practice seminar. Students should develop an own research proposal in this research area and search for empirical data that allows answering their research questions. This can be done by either using secondary data (e.g. European Social Survey, Election Studies) or developing and implementing new research instruments (e.g. online survey, text analysis of party programmes or news media reporting).
The goals of the research practice seminar are threefold. First, students become acquainted with theories and recent research on representation and inequality. Second, they learn how to develop a research proposal. Third, student become familiarized with empirical research methods in political science, either by using existing data and analysing those, or by collecting own data based on newly developed research instruments. They can then be applying to their own research proposal.