Comparative Politics
Research focus
Research in Comparative Politics focuses on the impact of political institutions and actors on variables such as democratization, quality of democracy and political representation. In addition, we contribute to the development of quantitative, but also qualitative methods in political science. Since 2013 this area of scholarship has been under the direction of Prof. Jessica Fortin-Rittberger.
Staff
The following personnel of the Department of Political Science is doing research and teaches in the field of comparative politics:
- FORTIN-RITTBERGER Jessica, PhD, Professor
- LE GALL Cal, Ph.D., Post-doctoral Researcher
- ZWITTLINGER Lara, B.A., B.A., M.A., PhD Fellow
Formerly associated staff
Research projects
Currently, the following externally financed research projects are carried out by members of the political science department in the field of comparative politics:
- Project Consequences of Electoral System Change
- Project Electoral Success of Women
- Project Budgetary Discourse in the Eurozone
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Project Gender in Contemporary Europe: Rethinking Equality and the Backlash
Recent Publications
2025
- Fortin-Rittberger, Jessica / Christina Eder (2025). Disentangling different types of sexist attitudes and vote choice in Germany, in: Political Research Exchange, forthcoming. https://doi.org/10.1080/2474736X.2025.2508382.
2024
- Beaudonnet, Laurie / Celine Belot / Cal Le Gall / Virginie Van Ingelgom (2024). Taking stock of the 2024 European elections in the 27 Member States, in: Politique européenne, 86(4). https://shs.cairn.info/journal-politique-europeenne-2024-4?lang=en.
- Beaudonnet, Laurie / Celine Belot / Cal Le Gall / Virginie Van Ingelgom (2024). The second-order model revisited: Lessons from the 2024 European elections in the 27 member states, in: Politique européenne, 86(4), 6–25. https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04837978v1.
- Fortin-Rittberger, Jessica / Stefan Hee (2024). 2024 European Election in Germany: A Rightward Shift Amidst Government Setbacks (Élections européennes de 2024 en Allemagne: Un virage à droite dans un contexte de recul du gouvernement), in: Politique européenne, 86(4), 114–121. https://shs.cairn.info/journal-politique-europeenne-2024-4-page-114?lang=en.
- Fortin-Rittberger, Jessica (2024). What is special about women in EU institutions?, in: European Union Politics, 26(1), 185–202. https://doi.org/10.1177/1465116524129932.
- Le Gall, Cal / Virginie Van Ingelgom / Claire Dupuy (2024). Perceived constraints from European and international integration: citizens’ feeling of being represented and turnout, in: Journal of European Integration, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/07036337.2024.2386581.
- Vila-Henninger, Luis / Claire Dupuy / Virginie Van Ingelgom / Mauro Caprioli / Ferdinand Teuber / Damien Pennetreau / Margherita Bussi / Cal Le Gall (2024). Abductive coding: Theory building and qualitative (re) analysis, in: Sociological Methods & Research, 53(2), 968–1001. https://doi.org/10.1177/00491241211067508.
- Zwittlinger, Lara / Nadine Zwiener-Collins / Zoe Lefkofridi (2024). Kognitive Dissonanz aufgrund gelebter Realitäten? Die Auswirkungen der Covid-19-Lockdownpolitik auf Österreichs Geschlechterrollenbilder, in: Wolfgang Aschauer / Dimitri Prandner / Anja Eder (eds.). Die Auswirkungen der Corona-Pandemie auf die österreichische Gesellschaft, Baden-Baden, 229-272.
2023
- Allern, Elin H. / Vibeke W. Hansen / Lise Rødland / Maiken Røed / Heike Klüver / Cal Le Gall / David Marshall / Simon Otjes / Thomas Poguntke / Anne Rasmussen / Sabine Saurugger / Christopher Witko (2023). Introducing the party-interest group relationships in contemporary democracies datasets, in: Party Politics, 29(2), 394–403. https://doi.org/10.1177/13540688221075591.
- Coffé, Hilde / Marta Fraile / Amy Alexander / Jessica Fortin-Rittberger / Susan Banducci (2023). Masculinity, sexism and populist radical right support, in: Frontiers in Political Science, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2023.1038659.
- Coffé, Hilde / Marta Fraile / Amy Alexander / Jessica Fortin-Rittberger / Susan Banducci (eds.) (2023). Mind the Backlash: Gender Discrimination and Sexism in Contemporary Societies, Special Issue and E-book, in: Frontiers in Political Science. https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/23364/mind-the-backlash-gender-discrimination-and-sexism-in-contemporary-societies.
- Laloux, Thomas / Cal Le Gall (2023). Quantitative analyses of the European Union, in: Samuel Faure / Christian Lequesne (eds.): The Elgar Companion to the European Union, Cheltenham Glos, 133–144. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800883437.00019.
- Le Gall, Cal / Morgan Le Corre-Juratic / Virginie Van Ingelgom (2023). Opinions publiques et les crises européennes: Une montée de l’euroscepticisme, mais pas que!, in: Lola Avril / Samuel B. H. Faure / Vincent Lebrou (eds.): «C’est la crise»: Contribution à une sociologie politique de l’action publique européenne, Bruxelles et al.
2022
- Dingler, Sarah C. / Jessica Fortin-Rittberger (2022). Women’s Leadership in the European Parliament: A Long-Term Perspective, in: Henriette Müller / Ingeborg Tömmel (eds.): Women and Leadership in the European Union, Oxford, 74–92. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192896216.003.0005.
2021
- Fortin-Rittberger, Jessica / Corinna Kröber (2021). Der neu gewählte Deutsche Bundestag: Ein Schritt in Richtung eines “repräsentativen” Parlaments?, in: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 2021: Nach der Bundestagswahl, 47-49, 34-40.
- Fortin-Rittberger, Jessica / Lena Ramstetter (2021). The Privilege of (Defining) Knowledge: Gender Differences in Political Knowledge across Europe, in: Gabriele Abels / Andrea Krizsan / Heather MacRae / Anna van der Vleuten (eds.): The Routledge Handbook of Gender and EU Politics, London: Routledge.
2020
- Fortin-Rittberger, Jessica (2020). Political Knowledge: Assessing the Stability of Gender Gaps Cross-nationally, in: International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 32(1), 46-65. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edz005.
- Fraile, Marta / Jessica Fortin-Rittberger (2020). Unpacking Gender, Age and Education Knowledge Inequalities: A Systematic Comparison, in: Social Science Quarterly, 101(4), 1653-1669. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12822.
- Karremans, Jan / Zoe Lefkofridi (2020). The political economy ofthe European Union: between national and supranational politics, in: Ernesto Vivares (ed.): The Routledge Handbook to Global Political Economy, London, 472-487.
- Karremans, Jan / Zoe Lefkofridi (2020). Responsive vs. Responsible? Party Democracy in Times of Crisis, in: Party Politics, 26(3), 271-279. doi:10.1177/1354068818761199.
- Lefkofridi, Zoe (2020). Opinion-Policy Congruence, in: Jacques Thomassen / Robert J. Rohrschneider (eds.): Handbook of Political Representation in Liberal Democracies, Oxford, 358-377.
2019
- Dingler, Sarah C. / Corinna Kroeber / Jessica Fortin-Rittberger (2019). Do Parliaments Underrepresent Women’s Policy Preferences? Exploring Gender Equality in Policy Congruence in 21 European emocracies, in: Journal of European Public Policy, 26(2), 302-321. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2017.1423104.
- Fortin-Rittberger, Jessica / Christina Eder / Corinna Kroeber / Vanessa Marent (2019). How Party Systems Shape Local-National Gender Gaps, in: Government and Opposition, 54(1), 52-74. doi:10.1017/gov.2017.30.
- Kroeber, Corinna / Vanessa Marent / Jessica Fortin-Rittberger / Christina Eder (2019). Still a glass ceiling? Tracing the limits to women’s representation in elected office, in: Comparative European Politics, 17, 112–131. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41295-018-0114-5.
- Ramstetter, Lena / Fabian Habersack (2019). Do women make a difference? Analysing environmental attitudes and actions of Members of the European Parliament, in: Environmental Politics, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2019.1609156.
2018
- Dingler, Sarah C./Corinna Kröber (2018). Warum sich der Gender Gap durch den Reißverschluss nicht schließen lässt: Eine Analyse der Repräsentation von Frauen im österreichischen Nationalrat (JBZ-Arbeitspapiere, Nr. 46), Salzburg.
- Dingler, Sarah C. / Corinna Kroeber / Jessica Fortin-Rittberger (2018). Do parliaments underrepresent women’s policy preferences? Exploring gender equality in policy congruence in 21 European democracies, in: Journal of European Public Policy, 1–20. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13501763.2017.1423104.
- Harfst, Philipp / Sarah C. Dingler / Jessica Fortin-Rittberger / Julian Noseck et al. (2018). Elusive indeed – The mechanical versus psychological effects of electoral rules at the district level, in: Electoral Studies, 53, 90–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2018.04.001.
- Lefkofridi, Zoe / Nathalie Giger / Anne Maria Holli (2018). When All Parties Nominate Women: The Role of Political Gender Stereotypes in Voters’ Choices, in: Politics and Gender, 15(4), 746-772. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X18000454.
- Lefkofridi, Zoe / Alexia Katsanidou (2018). A Step Closer to a Transnational Party System? Competition and Coherence in the 2009 and 2014 European Parliament: A Transnational Party System?, in: JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 56(6), 1462–1482. http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/jcms.12755.
- Lefkofridi, Zoe / Kristina Weissenbach (2019). The Institutionalisation of New Parties in Greece: (How) Does it matter for Success?, in: Robert Harmel / Lars Svasand (eds.): Institutionalization of Political Parties: Comparative Cases, Colchester.
- Maier, Jürgen / Thorsten Faas / Berthold Rittberger / Jessica Fortin-Rittberger et al. (2018). This time it’s different? Effects of the Eurovision Debate on young citizens and its consequence for EU democracy – evidence from a quasi-experiment in 24 countries, in: Journal of European Public Policy, 25(4), 606-629. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2016.1268643.
- Niemann, Arne / Zoe Lefkofridi / Philippe C. Schmitter (2018). Neofunctionalism, in: Antje Wiener / Tanja Börzel / Thomas Risse (eds.): European Integration Theories, Third Edition, Oxford, 43-63.
Complete lists of publications of the staff members in comparative politics may be found on their personal websites.