Profile

Within the division of labour at the Institute of Political Science at the TU Dresden, the professorship deals with political systems and system comparison; specifically, it focuses on the political systems of Germany and the Free State of Saxony, local politics as well as social science methodology.

The following topics are focal points:

• Democracy and autocracy (internal and external aspects of democratisation, quality and stability of democracies, autocratisation, promotion and diffusion of autocracy)
• Digital politics (Digital processes and their interplay in democracies and autocracies. E-democracy and e-participation, social media communication)
• Solidarity (solidarity in crisis situations, solidarity in the migration crisis and in the Corona pandemic)
• Municipal processes and conflicts (crisis intervention, measures of citizen participation and citizen dialogues, stabilisation of political culture, promotion of civil courage)

The professorship places great emphasis on social science methodology and empirical political research. Together with professors from the Institutes of Sociology and Communication Science, it runs the Zentrum für sozialwissenschaftliche Methoden, which serves to coordinate and optimise joint social science methods training at TU Dresden.

In addition to teaching and research, the professorship is involved in a variety of advisory and continuing education programmes. In particular, it works closely with the Sächsischen Landeszentrale für Politische Bildung [Saxon State Centre for Political Education].