Short-Term Projects

A 'Common Sense Revolution'?

Prof. Dr. Tanja A. Börzel, Prof. Dr. Miriam Hartlapp , Dr. Lukas Obholzer

Apr 01, 2019 — Dec 31, 2019

This research project studies contestations within the EU political system, namely that of Eurosceptic parties within European Parliament.

A Longitudinal and Multilocal Qualitative Analysis of Displacement from Ukraine

Prof. Dr. Gwendolyn Sasse

May 01, 2022 — Apr 30, 2023

The project investigates the trajectories of displacement of Ukrainians who fled their home country following the Russian invasion in February 2022.

COVID-19 as a challenge to the liberal script

Prof. Dr. Heike Klüver

Feb 16, 2022 — Dec 31, 2022

COVID-19 is a major challenge to the liberal script. To fight the spread of the virus, governments around the world have adopted far-reaching measures, often imposing severe restrictions to personal freedoms of citizens. What is more, many governments have relied on executive decrees and emergency ...

China-inspired Digital Industrial Policy as a Challenge to the Liberal Script?

Prof. Dr. Katharina Bluhm

Jul 01, 2021 — Dec 31, 2021

The study explores how different European national states deal with the question of digitalization and digital industrial policy inspired by China.

Contesting the Liberal Border Script

Prof. Dr. Christian Volk

Oct 01, 2022 — Mar 31, 2023

The liberal script rests both on the notion of sovereign territorial nation states and the universal promise of fundamental rights for everyone. In recent years, borders of liberal democracies have become more and more militarized, nearly insurmountable for those seeking entry, and frequently ...

Does it pay off for authoritarian regimes to organize major sports events?

Dr. Johannes Gerschweski, Dr. Heiko Giebler, Prof. Dr. Michael Zürn, Research collaborators: Dr. Eda Keremoglu (Universität Konstanz) Dr. Sebastian Hellmeier (WZB)

Nov 01, 2022 — Apr 30, 2023

The 2022 FIFA World Cup is held in Qatar, one of the most autocratic regimes in the world. Authoritarian regimes increasingly use major international sporting events to improve their international reputation and distract from human rights abuses.

Financial (re-)allocation after COVID-19

Johannes Petry

Apr 01, 2021 — Sep 30, 2021

Over the course of 2020, global investors poured more than $1 trillion into Chinese stock and bond markets (Lockett & Hale, 2020) and global financial institutions scrambled to reallocate their business activities to China (Bloomberg News, 2020). Despite the US-China trade war and political developments in Hong Kong, China is gaining in importance for the allocation of financial assets globally. The fact that China is the only major economy that experienced economic growth in 2020, only adds to its growing attraction as an investment destination. Similar to other crisis periods, COVID-19 might arguably crystallise as a critical juncture in China’s global rise. This research project therefore aims (1) to analyse the growing reallocation of global finance towards China, as well as (2) its implications for the liberal global financial order.

Gender, Border Expansion, and the Liberal Script

Prof. Dr. Jessica Gienow-Hecht

Jun 01, 2021 — Dec 31, 2021

Contemporary political leaders in both liberal and illiberal regimes frequently pitch a masculine imagery of themselves and their countries in order to promote populist and/or repressive political agendas. They construct, control, and contest borders on the international stage by making ...

Making sense of girls empowerment in Sierra Leone: a conversation

Dr. Anne Menzel, Dr. Dr. Aisha Fofana Ibrahim, University of Sierra Leone

May 01, 2021 — Dec 31, 2021

This small project facilitated and documented a conversation about the emancipatory potentials and pitfalls of girls empowerment as practised, experienced, and judged by Sierra Leonean activists. We discussed views on and experiences of girls empowerment approaches that have been interpreted in ...

Pandemic Rationalities: Sources and Dynamics of Uncertainty and Non-Compliance in Germany

Dr. Anne Menzel, PD Dr. med. Michael Knipper

May 01, 2021 — Dec 31, 2021

According to widely shared and disseminated sentiments, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by an almost equally frightening crisis of enlightened reason. So-called "corona protests," conspiracy theories, and what appears to be an escalating loss of confidence in science, politics, ...

Performing the Liberal Script: Audiovisual Arts and the Aesthetics of Self-Determination

Prof. Dr. Jessica Gienow-Hecht

Apr 01, 2019 — Dec 31, 2019

This research project takes a look at the audiovisual and aesthetic components of the liberal script, particularly as they appear in classical music and other forms of artistic expression. The premise is that while the liberal script has yielded positive results, it has failed in selling its accomplishments by way of emotional attraction, aesthetic vision and artistic inspiration.

Political leaders and gender equality: Can female top leaders reduce inequalities in political participation?

Prof. Dr. Heike Klüver, Prof. Dr. Jae-Jae Spoon (University of Pittsburgh)

Jun 01, 2022 — Dec 31, 2022

The participation of women in politics is still much lower than that of men in established democracies. Whilst the political representation of women has been steadily increasing in most established democracies, there is still a substantive gender gap in political participation (Coffé and ...

Populism and Perceived Inequality

Prof. Dr. Heike Klüver, Prof. Dr. Johannes Giesecke, Dr. Lukas Stoetzer

Jan 01, 2021 — Dec 31, 2021

The research question of our project is whether perceived inequality affects support for populist parties. Raising inequalities all over the globe have been described as a fertile ground for the rise of populist parties. Existing research, for example, reports that raising inequality can (under certain conditions) play a central role in understanding the support for radical-right and populist parties [Coffé et al., 2007, Jesuit et al., 2009, Han, 2016, Engler and Weisstanner, 2020,]. However, existing evidence focuses solely on the influence of objective income inequality levels in a country and arrives at mixed findings. In this project, we shift the focus from macro-level income inequalities to perceived inequalities by individual voters. Citizen perceptions of inequality and actual inequality do not necessarily coincide and perceptions are potentially more relevant to explain behaviour [Engelhardt and Wagener, 2014]. In addition, a focus on perception can also encompass other inequalities next to income, like inequality in wealth or inequality in opportunities.

Responding to the (Populist) Right: How Moderate Parties Can Win Back Voters

Prof. Dr. Heike Klüver, Prof. Dr. Petra Schleiter, Dr. Lukas Stoetzer

Jan 01, 2021 — Dec 31, 2021

Right-wing populist and far right parties are on the rise across Europe. While established parties are suffering dramatic electoral losses, right-wing parties are celebrating one electoral victory after another. To address their radical right and populist challengers, many established parties have adopted a so-called “accommodative strategy” (Meguid 2005, 2008) by taking a more immigration-skeptical policy position. For instance, in an attempt to win back voters from the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) during the recent refugee crisis, the German CSU has advocated a much more restrictive immigration policy position openly opposing chancellor Merkel and the CDU in the aftermath of the refugee crisis. Similarly, during the recent Danish election in June 2019, the Danish Social democratic party combined its left-wing views on social policy with advocating for a much more restrictive immigration policy in an effort to counteract the right-wing populist Danish People’s Party. However, it is unclear whether such a strategy yields the expected benefits or whether such a position shift only reinforces electoral support for the far right. In this project, we therefore seek to study the effect of moderate parties’ responses to the rise of right-wing populist and far right parties. More specifically, we seek to examine which strategies mainstream parties can employ to keep their voters from switching to far right challengers.

Restrictions of civil liberties and their political legitimation in context: a cross-national survey experiment on citizens’ acceptance of pandemic countermeasures

Dr. Johannes Gerschweski, Dr. Heiko Giebler

Jan 01, 2021 — Dec 31, 2021

Under which conditions do citizens accept possibly far-reaching limitations of their individual rights for the sake of the common good? Like a magnifying glass, the global COVID-19 pandemic directs renewed attention to fundamental questions on the legitimation and acceptance of political authority ...

Rethinking Individual Self-determination and Women’s Emancipation. Global South Feminism(s) and the Contestation of Liberal Feminist Thought

Prof. Dr. Gülay Çağlar

Jul 01, 2021 — Jul 31, 2022

While liberal feminists question the liberal script and criticize that the promise of individual self-determination and emancipation of women has not been fulfilled, different feminist currents from the Global South criticize quite fundamentally the idea of individual self-determination as well as ...

Scaring away the young? Electoral maladministration in Berlin and its consequences

Prof. Dr. Anette Fasang, Dr. Heiko Giebler, Prof. Dr. Thorsten Faas (Otto-Suhr-Institut, FU Berlin)

Feb 13, 2023 — Dec 31, 2023

1. Project Motivation and Relation to SCRIPTS While the specific definition and nature of the Liberal Script is a matter of debate, it seems close to impossible imagining an iteration of such a script without collective selfdetermination ensured by democratic procedures. Adopting the Dahlian ...

The Not-So-Universal Declarations: Types and Effects of Human Rights Rhetoric in the UN General Assembly

Prof. Dr. Slava Jankin, Dr. Olga Gasparyan, Dr. Niheer Dasandi

Jun 01, 2022 — Dec 31, 2022

Respect for human rights is perhaps the defining feature of liberalism (Moyn 2010). It is widely recognised that over the past few decades, international human rights language has come to dominate world politics (Hafner-Burton and Ron 2007). Some scholars have expressed optimism about the ...

The Politics of Public Allocation of Scarce Goods: Evidence from the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme

Prof. Dr. Heike Klüver, Prof. Dr. Johannes Giesecke, Prof. Macartan Humphreys

Jan 01, 2021 — Dec 31, 2021

Public resources are often scarce goods and decision-makers therefore have to decide who gets public resources when. Such allocation decisions touch upon the basic fabrics that tie societies together as it is a normative question which citizens should be prioritized in the distribution of public goods. The public allocation of goods is therefore often a highly political issue that is often severely contested. Challengers such as right-wing populist parties and extremist social movements often exploit citizen dissatisfaction with the allocation of public goods. For instance, recent research shows that right wing populist parties are particularly successful when socioeconomic inequality in societies is high (Engler and Weisstanner 2020; Stoetzer, Giesecke and Klüver 2020). Dissatisfaction with government allocation decisions threaten social cohesion. In this project, we therefore seek to answer the following research questions: What determines citizens’ attitudes towards public allocation and what can governments do to increase citizen support and solidarity in a society? To address these questions, we study the allocation of the COVID-19 vaccine during the current pandemic. The roll-out of the vaccination program provides a unique opportunity to study the determinants of citizens’ attitudes towards the public allocation of scarce goods. On the one hand, becoming vaccinated is a matter of life and death for citizens with health issues. On the other hand, vaccination will likely come with important privileges related to personal freedoms and mobility as current discussions in many countries show. Thus, the COVID-19 vaccination program does not only provide important cross-sectional and temporal variation, but is a highly salient issue for all citizens worldwide. The results of our project have implications for SCRIPTS and current public debates. On the one hand, we will shed light on what determines citizens’ attitudes towards public allocation of scarce goods, but we will also identify ways to increase individual compliance, citizen support for government policy, and social solidarity. The findings will provide policy-makers with practical recommendations that are relevant for both the current COVID-19 vaccination programme and longer term strategies to raise support for the public allocation of goods more generally.

The ecology of individuals’ disposition for scientific populism

Prof. Dr. Yasemin Soysal

Jan 01, 2023 — Dec 31, 2023

This short-term project seeks to provide a systematic study of the macro level mediators of population support or opposition of the liberal script, with a focus on “science populism.” Specifically, it investigates whether, and the extent to which, differential exposure to transnational ...

Who wrote the Liberal International Order script? Contributions from the Global South to the international human rights architecture

Prof. Dr. Tobias Berger, Dr. Luis Aue

Oct 01, 2021 — Mar 31, 2022

The aim of this short-term project is to map the state of the art and ongoing scholarly controversies surrounding the emergence of the international human rights regime. In particular, the project focusses on the contributions of actors from the Global South to the emergence of international human ...

“Bürgerräte” and the liberal script: A field experiment testing the democratic potential of citizen assemblies

Prof. Dr. Heike Klüver, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Felix Hartmann, LL.M. (Harvard) , Bernhard Clemm von Hohenberg, Tim Wappenhans (HU Berlin)

Feb 13, 2023 — Dec 31, 2023

The decreasing political trust of citizens in the political order, the rise of fake news and conspiracy undermining political institutions and inequalities in political representation are key challenges to the liberal script. In order to address these challenges, citizen assemblies ...