Political Science Methods

Research Focus

Since October 2023, this department is led by Professor Robert A. Huber. In addition to developing and conveying new methodological approaches, the substantive research focus of the department lies in the field of Comparative and International Politics. Specifically, the group’s research focus revolves around examining how globalization poses new challenges to liberal democracy. Utilizing state-of-the-art methods, we investigate areas such as democratic backsliding, climate and environmental politics, populism, and trade policy.

Staff

The following personnel of the Department of Political Science is doing research and teaches in the field of political science methods:

The following colleagues support our work as research assistants:

  • DE MINK Maya
  • SCHACHINGER Helena, BA

Former Team Members and Academic Guests

The following scholars worked in the political science methods group:

  • TEPLIAKOVA, Mariia, Dr. ( Website)

The following guests visited the political science methods group:

Recent Publications

2025

  • Borońska-Hryniewiecka, Karolina / Lucy Kinski (Eds.) (2025). The Parliamentary Dimension of the Conference on the Future of Europe: Synergies and Legitimacy Clashes, London.  https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003470793.
  • Dür, Andreas (2025). EU Trade Agreements and External Differentiation: A Large Language Model Approach, in: West European Politics, 48(5), 1059–1085.  https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2024.2425549.
  • Dür, Andreas / Alessia Invernizzi (2025). Weathering the Storm: US Trade Policy Beyond Trump, in: International Organization, 79(S1), S194–S208.  https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818325101112.
  • Dür, Andreas / Robert A. Huber / Gemma Mateo (2025). Compensating the Losers: The (Limited) Elite–Public Gap in Trade Politics, in: European Journal of Political Research, 1–19.  https://doi.org/10.1017/S1475676526100796.
  • Dür, Andreas / Robert A. Huber (2025). Preferences for Trading Partners, in: Globalization in Latin America, 36.  https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009568067.
  • Dür, Andreas / Gemma Mateo / Lorane Visart (2025). Geopolitics Meets Business Interests: The EU and European Economic Security, in: Journal of European Public Policy, 1–28.  https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2025.2537776.
  • Dür, Andreas / Stefan Hee / Robert A. Huber (2025). A Fair Deal: Inequity Aversion and Individual Attitudes toward Trade Agreements, in: The Review of International Organizations, 1–22.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11558-025-09597-0.
  • Erhardt, Julian (2025). The Democratic Personality? The Big Five, Authoritarianism and Regime Preference in Consolidated Democracies, in: Politics, 45(2), 223–238.  https://doi.org/10.1177/02633957231172056.
  • Filsinger, Maximilian / Markus Freitag / Julian Erhardt / Steffen Wamsler (2025). Rally Around Your Fellows: Information and Social Trust in a Real-World Experiment During the Corona Crisis, in: The Social Science Journal, 62(2), 494–508.  https://doi.org/10.1080/03623319.2021.1954463.
  • Fortin-Rittberger, Jessica (2025). What Is Special about Women in EU Institutions?, in: European Union Politics, 26(1), 185–202.  https://doi.org/10.1177/14651165241299328.
  • Fortin-Rittberger, Jessica / Christina Eder (2025). Disentangling Different Types of Sexist Attitudes and Vote Choice in Germany, in: Political Research Exchange, 7(1).  https://doi.org/10.1080/2474736X.2025.2508382.
  • Kindt, Rosa / Robert A. Huber / Kristof Jacobs (2025). How Populist Citizens See the People and Their Place in Representative Democracy, in: West European Politics, 1–29.  https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2025.2559520.
  • Kinski, Lucy / Ermela Gianna / Ariadna Ripoll Servent (2025). The EU’s Recovery Playbook: Solidarity, Conditionality, and Resilience in European Parliament Debates on the Recovery and Resilience Facility, in: Journal of European Integration, 1–23.  https://doi.org/10.1080/07036337.2025.2580639.
  • Kinski, Lucy / Simon D. Brause (2025). Germany: Political Developments and Data in 2024: Collapse of the Governing Coalition, in: Political Data Yearbook, 64(1), 231–253.  https://doi.org/10.1111/2047-8852.70016.
  • Meijers, Maurits J. / Robert A. Huber / Andrej Zaslove (2025). The Anatomy of Populist Ideology: How Political Parties Define ‘the People’ and ‘the Elite’, in: European Journal of Political Research, 64(4), 2161–2176.  https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.70026.
  • Van Hauwaert, Steven M. / Robert A. Huber (2025). Populism and Democracy on the Individual Level: Building on, Yet Moving Beyond the Supply Side, in: PS: Political Science & Politics, 58 (1), 82–86.  https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096524000301.
  • Zeng, Yuleng / Andreas Dür (2025). Shock and Awe: Economic Sanctions and Relative Military Spending, in: Journal of Peace Research, 62(6), 1968–1983.  https://doi.org/10.1177/00223433251331486.
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2024

  • Baranowski, Mariusz / Robert A. Huber / Piotr Jabkowski / Julia Szulecka (2024). Left–Right Political Orientation Fails to Explain Environmental Attitudes of Europeans Outside Western Europe: Exploring the Moderating Role of Party Positions and Issue Salience, in: Environmental Politics, September, 1–24.  https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2024.2401257.
  • Brause, Simon D. / Lucy Kinski (2024). Mainstream Party Agenda-Responsiveness and the Electoral Success of Right-Wing Populist Parties in Europe, in: Journal of European Public Policy, 31(2), 295–323.  https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2022.2155214.
  • Dür, Andreas / Robert A. Huber / Yannick Stiller (2024a). It’s Trade, Stupid! How Changes in Trade Competitiveness Affect Incumbents’ Electoral Success, in: European Journal of Political Research, 63(4), 1712–1723.  https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12663.
  • Dür, Andreas / Robert A. Huber / Yannick Stiller (2024b). Trade Competitiveness, Constituency Interests, and Legislators’ Attitudes Towards Trade Agreements, in: Legislative Studies Quarterly, 49 (2), 353–382.  https://doi.org/10.1111/lsq.12426.
  • Erhardt, Julian / Maximilian Filsinger (2024). A Spectre of Democracy: Are Populist Citizens Less Supportive of Democracy?, in: West European Politics, September, 1–30.  https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2024.2398892.
  • Gomm, Sarah / Robert A. Huber / Dennis Kolcava / E. Keith Smith / Thomas Bernauer (2024). Procedural Inclusiveness Can Mitigate Trust Challenges in Environmental Policymaking, in: Journal of European Public Policy, October, 1–27.  https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2024.2413458.
  • Huber, Robert A. / Steven M. Van Hauwaert (2024). Dimensions of Participation and Populism in Times of Discontent: A Theory- and Data-Driven Approach, in: Political Studies, October, 00323217241266028.  https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217241266028.
  • Huber, Robert / Michael Jankowski (eds.) (2024). Populism: An Introduction, Thousand Oaks: Sage.
  • Zaslove, Andrej / Maurits J. Meijers / Robert A. Huber (2024). The State of Populism: Introducing the 2023 Wave of the Populism and Political Parties Expert Survey, SocArXiv.  https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/9wmjb.

2023

  • Dür, Andreas / Robert A. Huber / Gemma Mateo / Gabriele Spilker (2023). Interest Group Preferences towards Trade Agreements: Institutional Design Matters, in: Interest Groups & Advocacy, 12(1), 48–72.  https://doi.org/10.1057/s41309-022-00174-z.
  • Eberl, Jakob-Moritz / Robert A. Huber / Niels G. Mede / Esther Greussing (2023). Populist Attitudes towards Politics and Science: How Do They Differ?, in: Political Research Exchange, 5(1), 2159847.  https://doi.org/10.1080/2474736X.2022.2159847.
  • Erhardt, Julian (2023). Political support through representation by the government. Evidence from Dutch panel data, in: Swiss Political Science Review, 29(2), 202–222.  https://doi.org/10.1111/spsr.12561.
  • Erhardt, Julian / Markus Freitag / Maximilian Filsinger (2023). Leaving democracy? Pandemic threat, emotional accounts and regime support in comparative perspective, in: West European Politics, 46(3), 477–499.  https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2022.2097409.
  • Huber, Robert A. / Michael Jankowski / Christina‐Marie Juen (2023). Populist Parties and the Two‐dimensional Policy Space, in: European Journal of Political Research, 62(3), 989–1004.  https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12569.
  • Huber, Robert A./ Michael Jankowski / Carsten Wegscheider (2023). Explaining Populist Attitudes: The Impact of Policy Discontent and Representation, in: Politische Vierteljahresschrift, 64(1), 133–54.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11615-022-00422-6.
  • Jankowski, Michael / Robert A. Huber (2023). When Correlation Is Not Enough: Validating Populism Scores from Supervised Machine-Learning Models, in: Political Analysis, 31(4), 591–605.  https://doi.org/10.1017/pan.2022.32.
  • Wamsler, Steffen / Markus Freitag / Julian Erhardt / Maximilian Filsinger (2023). The Pandemic and the Question of National Belonging: Exposure to Covid-19 Threat and Conceptions of Nationhood, in: European Journal of Political Research, 62(2), 510–529.  https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12515.

2022

  • Beiser-McGrath / Liam F. / Robert A. Huber/ Thomas Bernauer / Vally Koubi (2022). Parliament, People or Technocrats? Explaining Mass Public Preferences on Delegation of Policymaking Authority, in: Comparative Political Studies, 55(4), 527–54.  https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140211024284.
  • Bräuninger, Thomas / Thomas Däubler / Robert Huber / Lukas Rudolph (2022). How Open Lists Undermine the Electoral Support of Cohesive Parties, in: British Journal of Political Science, 52(4), 1931–43.  https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123421000417.
  • Erhardt, Julian / Markus Freitag / Steffen Wamsler / Maximilian Filsinger (2022). What drives political support? Evidence from a survey experiment at the onset of the corona crisis, in: Contemporary Politics, 28(4), 429–446.  https://doi.org/10.1080/13569775.2021.2010345.
  • Huber, Robert (2022). Populism and Climate Change, in: Luca Manucci (ed.): The Populism Interviews, London: Routledge, 135–39.  https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003250388.
  • Huber, Robert A. / Esther Greussing / Jakob-Moritz Eberl (2022). From Populism to Climate Scepticism: The Role of Institutional Trust and Attitudes towards Science, in: Environmental Politics, 31(7), 1115–38.  https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2021.1978200.
  • Stiller, Yannick / Andreas Dür / Robert A. Huber (2022). Education and Trade Attitudes: Revisiting the Role of Economic Interest, in: World Trade Review, 21(4), 497–511.  https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474745621000562.

Complete lists of publications of the staff members in political science methods may be found on their personal websites.