Short-Term Projects

Short-term projects run from a couple of months up to a year. They address topical issues, emerge from projects or research interests by principal investigators and junior researchers or result from discussions within and between Research Units. These projects are funded by SCRIPTS.

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

Project Description This project was built on the research titled ‘The Politics of Public Allocation of Scarce Goods: Evidence from the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme,’ initially conducted in 2021. It focused on three key areas: liberal strategies for democratic decision-making in times of ...

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 ...

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

Project Description This project examined the connection between perceived inequality and support for populist parties, focusing on how individual perceptions of inequality, rather than objective income disparities, influence voter behaviour. By shifting the focus from macro-level economic ...

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

Project Description This research project examined the rise of right-wing populist and far-right parties across Europe and investigates how mainstream parties can respond to this challenge. Focusing on Germany, the project explores strategied that moderate parties might use to retain or win back ...

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

Project Description Under which conditions do citizens accept possibly far-reaching limitations of their individual rights for the sake of the common good? The global COVID-19 pandemic directed 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

Project Description This project explored the complex and often contentious issue of public resource allocation, focusing on how governments decide who receives scarce public goods. These decisions are not just administrative but deeply political, touching on societal norms and potentially ...

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

Project Description The research project focuses on citizen assemblies (“Bürgerräte”), which are designed to address critical challenges to the liberal democratic order, such as declining political trust, the spread of misinformation, and inequalities in political representation. These ...