Research

Subproject B04 "Economic property and political (in-)equality" as part of the Collaborative Research Centre TRR 294 "Structural Change of Property"

The point of departure of this project is the assumption that economic property increasingly impacts political (in-)equality in representative democracies. This structural change through property has the potential to challenge the promise of equality made by developed democracies and aggravate their legitimacy problem. The analysis takes an elite theory approach with reference to two closely connected aspects: the role of property in access to elite statuses and the representative relationship between elites and the wider population.

Using Germany as an example, the analysis is based on a mixed-methods study composed of standardised surveys conducted among elites as well as the wider populace, a qualitative longitudinal study, and analyses of primary and secondary data.

Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Marion Reiser (Universität Jena) and Dr. Lars Vogel (Universität Leipzig)

Institutions involved: Universität Jena and Universität Leipzig

Funding Institution: German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG)

Thüringen-Monitor

Since 2018, the Thüringen-Monitor has been conducted under the direction of Prof. Dr. Marion Reiser. The Thüringen-Monitor is a representative population survey concerning the political culture of the Free State of Thuringia. Each year, a special focus is given to investigating right-wing extremist attitudes, acceptance of democracy, satisfaction with democracy, trust in institutions and the political participation of the Thuringian population. This allows the diagnosis and interpretation of long-term developments (time series analyses). All Thüringen-Monitor published so far can be retrieved as .pdf-documents on the websites of the Thuringian state governmentExternal link and the Zentrum für Rechtsextremismusforschung, Demokratiebildung und gesellschaftliche Integration (KomRex)External link.

Scientific Direction: Prof. Dr. Marion Reiser
Scientific Coordination:  Dr. Anne Küppers
Co-Authors: Dr. Jörg Hebenstreit, Dr. Axel Salheiser, Dr. Lars Vogel

Commissioned by the Thuringian State Chancellery

Research project "Intra-party competition in the candidate nomination process"

The research project deals with political competition in representative democracy or more precisely with intra-party competition in Germany. Typically, political competition in representative democracy is identified with competition between parties and thus with elections. In Germany, as in other democracies, essential parts of this contest are held within the parties themselves. Thus, the intra-party nomination process is still very important for the composition of the Bundestag, since for the majority of candidates it is already clear at the time of their nomination whether they will become members of parliament or not. The aim is to analyze intra-party candidate selection in Germany in the context of the international comparative discussion. The central question of the project is: Which factors and mechanisms structure the intra-party contest and its results in Germany? Thereby, the study focuses on degree and form of the contest, its organization, and the central selection criteria.

Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Marion Reiser

Funding Institution: German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) and the Presidential Board as well as the Department of Social Sciences of the Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt

Publications (selection):

• Reiser, Marion (2020): Innerparteilicher Wettbewerb bei der Kandidatenaufstellung: Ausmaß – Organisation – Selektionskriterien. Springer VS: Wiesbaden [im Erscheinen].
• Reiser, Marion (2019): Wettbewerb, Proporz, Solidarität – die konkurrierenden Logiken informeller Regeln bei der innerparteilichen Kandidatenaufstellung. In: Zeitschrift für Parteienwissenschaften 2: 195-205.
• Reiser, Marion (2018): Contagion Effects by the AfD? Candidate Selection in Germany. In: Coller, Xavier/Codero, Guillermo/Jaime-Castillo, Antonio M. (Hrsg.): The Selection of Politicians in Times of Crisis. Routledge, 81-97.
• Reiser, Marion (2014): The Universe of Group Representation in Germany: Analyzing Formal and Informal Party Rules and Quotas in the Process of Candidate Selection. In: International Political Science Review, 35(1), 56-66.
• Reiser, Marion (2011): "Wer entscheidet unter welchen Bedingungen über die Nominierung von Kandidaten?" Die innerparteilichen Selektionsprozesse zur Aufstellung in den Wahlkreisen. In: Niedermayer, Oskar (Hrsg.): Die Parteien nach der Bundestagswahl 2009. Wiesbaden, 237-259.

Research Project: "Parliamentary Socialization of Members of the German State Parliaments"

The project examines the parliamentary socialization of new MPs in the state parliaments of North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Wuerttemberg. The project investigates how new parliamentarians socialize into the parliamentary culture of the respective parliament and what effects it has on their attitudes in the conflicting fields of parliament, parliamentary group, party and citizens.

Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Marion Reiser is leading the project along with Prof. Dr. Jens Borchert (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt).

Funding Institution: Fritz Thyssen Foundation (2010-2014)

Publications (selection):

• Reiser, Marion/Hülsken, Claudia/Schwarz, Bertram/Hülsken, Claudia (2011): Das Reden der Neulinge und andere Sünden. Parlamentarische Sozialisation und Parlamentskultur in zwei deutschen Landtagen. In: Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen, 42, 820-834.
• Reiser, Marion (2018): Abgehoben und entkoppelt? Abgeordnete zwischen öffentlicher Kritik und Professionalisierungslogik. In: Brichzin, Jenni et al. (Hrsg.): Soziologie der Parlamente. Wiesbaden, 111-134.

Doctoral Programme "Democracy under Stress: Challenges and Perspectives“ at the Center for the Study of Democracy, Leuphana-University Lüneburg

The doctoral program investigates how the new political, economic, ecological, and cultural challenges (‚stress factors’) that modern democracies encounter are perceived, dealt with, and solved in view of the existing tension between political legitimacy and restricted performance. It will further look into the implications that different modes of problem-handling have for the ‚survival chances’ of democracy. This twofold research agenda will be analyzed in three fields of study that represent the core functions of democracies: participation, representation, and inclusion.

Project Direction: Prof. Dr. Marion Reiser is co-applicant, supervisor of several PhD projects and was speaker of the PhD program together with Ferdinand Müller-Rommel until 2018.

Funding Institution: Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture (2016-2020)

Research Project: "Unelected Legislators - Non-majoritarian Institutions (NMIs) caught between a lack of democratic legitimacy and functional advantages"

Principal Investigator: Dr. Jörg Hebenstreit

Non-majoritarian institutions (NMIs) have been largely overlooked by political science research in the jungle of national, European and international institutions. This is particularly surprising since they are associated with fundamental questions of democratic theory concerning the sources of political authority, how it should be controlled, and to whom it should be accountable. Put simply, non-majoritarian institutions are actors that can issue collectively binding political decisions and thus exercise political authority comparable to executives of nation-states, although they are not legitimized by democratic elections, civic participation or majoritarian decisions. The fact that, nevertheless, NMIs are often endowed with remarkable executive powers, that sometimes can intervene deeply in domestic affairs, can be easily illustrated by the Troika consisting of the ECB, the IMF and the European Commission. For example, this expert body created by the EU exercised considerable power in the Greek government-debt crisis and, among other things, implemented cuts in pensions, wages and minimum wages, abolished protection against wrongful termination, undermined collective bargaining rights, and also imposed far-reaching austerity measures and waves of dismissals in the public sector. The Troika, it is important to note, had no democratic legitimacy, was not accountable to any parliament, and was not forced to have its austerity policies approved by the European Court of Auditors (ECA). Pointedly, one could say that the Troika possessed power without control. The research project will take an in-depth look at this increasingly common type of institution, bringing into focus numerous other non-majoritarian institutions apart from the Troika.

Research Project: "Municipal Voter Groups as Hybrid Political Actors" as part of the Collaborative Research Centre SFB 580 Jena/Halle

The subject of this project is the non-partisan municipal voters’ association (German: KWG) who stand as candidates in elections or win seats in Germany in municipal representative bodies (municipal councils and district councils). These groups will be examined comparatively and longitudinally to explore how their networking with the social community, their - decidedly ambivalent - position in the local and supra-local party system, their programmatic profile, their social composition and their political style are shaped and possibly changed.

Project Direction: Prof. Dr. Marion Reiser was scientific coordinator of the subproject from 2004-2008 and for the period 2008-2012 she was project applicant along with Everhard Holtmann.

Funding Institution: German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) (2004-2012)

Publications (selection):

• Reiser, Marion/Everhard, Holtmann (2008): Farewell to the party model? Independent local lists in East and West European countries. Aus der Reihe: Urban and Regional Research International, Volume 11, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften: Wiesbaden.
• Reiser, Marion/Rademacher, Christian/Jaeck, Tobias (2008): Präsenz und Erfolg Kommunaler Wählergemeinschaften im Bundesländervergleich. In: Vetter, Angelika (Hrsg.): Erfolgsbedingungen lokaler Bürgerbeteiligung. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 123-147.
• Reiser, Marion (2011): Kommunale Wählergemeinschaften – Deutsche Besonderheit oder gesamteuropäisches Phänomen? In: Morlok, Martin/Poguntke, Thomas (Hrsg.): Politik an den Parteien vorbei? Freie Wähler und Kommunale Wählergemeinschaften als Alternative. Nomos: Baden-Baden, 73-93.

Research Project: "Directly Elected Mayors: Impact on the Local Party System"

Project within the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) programme for Strategic Partnership of the University of Frankfurt and Birmingham

Project Direction: Prof. Dr. Marion Reiser along with Dr. Karin Bottom (University of Birmingham)

Funding Institution: German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, DAAD) (2013-2014)

Publication:

• Bottom, Karin/Reiser, Marion (2014): Still want to Party? An assessment of Party Politicization in Directly Elected Mayoral Authorities in England and Germany’s North-Rhine Westphalia. Public Money and Management, 34(5), 339-346

Forschungsprojekt "Professionalization of Local Politics"

Council members in large German cities find themselves in a dilemma: On the one hand, they are formally honorary politicians in their leisure time; on the other hand, the exercise of their mandate is very time-consuming. Marion Reiser investigates which individual strategies council members use to reconcile work and mandate, and whether this considerable commitment of time results in a gradual professionalization of local politics. Using the example of four major German cities - Frankfurt am Main, Hanover, Nuremberg and Stuttgart - it is demonstrated that such professionalization processes do indeed take place, but that they surprisingly differ in degree and pattern from city to city.

Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Marion Reiser

Funding Institution: PhD project funded by the Volkswagen Foundation within the framework of the junior research group 'Politics as a Vocation' directed by Prof. Dr. Jens Borchert at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.

Publications (selection):

• Reiser, Marion (2006): Zwischen Ehrenamt und Berufspolitik: Professionalisierung der Kommunalpolitik in deutschen Großstädten. Aus der Reihe: Stadtforschung aktuell, Band 107, hrsg. v. Hellmut Wollmann. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften: Wiesbaden (zugleich Dissertation Universität Göttingen 2005).
• Reiser, Marion (2010): Ressourcen- oder Mitgliederbasiert? Zwei Formen politischer Professionalisierung auf der lokalen Ebene und ihre institutionellen Ursachen. In: Edinger, Michael /Patzelt, Werner J. (Hrsg.): Politik als Beruf. Politische Vierteljahresschrift, Sonderheft 44/2009, 121-144
• Reiser, Marion (2017): Zeitaufwand für das kommunalpolitische Ehrenamt. Eine Mehrebenenanalyse zu kontextuellen und individuellen Einflussfaktoren auf den Zeitaufwand ehrenamtlicher Kommunalpolitiker. In: Tausendpfund, Markus/Vetter Angelika (Hrsg.): Politische Einstellungen von Kommunalpolitikern im Vergleich. Wiesbaden, 81-109.

Research Project: "Election or Auction. Campaign Finance and Democracy in the U.S. after 'Citizens United'"

Principal Investigator: Dr. Jörg Hebenstreit

In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the U.S. Supreme Court in January 2010 opened the floodgates to unlimited campaign contributions from corporations, banks, trade unions and individuals. Although these contributions cannot be transferred directly to candidates, they can be transferred to Super Political Action Committees (Super PACs) closely associated with them. Since then, campaign costs, which were already high before 2010, have increased by sometimes exponential factors. The dissertation used quantitative-statistical methods to investigate the influence of the variable "money" on the outcome of elections and whether it has an impact on the broader political process. Thus, in addition to the electoral process, is it possible to identify effects on the recruitment of political staff, the so-called permanent campaign, voter turnout, polarization, the legislative process, and much more. In addition to this entirely empirical approach, fundamental questions about justice, equality, transparency as well as trust in the political process were also be addressed in the light of political theory.

Publications (selection):

• 01/2020: Wahlkampffinanzierung und Demokratie in den USA, Baden-Baden: Nomos.
• 02/2020: ’Drain or Fill the Swamp?’ - Entwicklungen im Bereich der Wahlkampffinanzierung unter Präsident Trump, in: Haas, Christoph C. et al. (Hrsg.): Eine Bilanz nach zwei Jahren Trump, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 101-118.
• 01/2020: ’It’s all about the Money’ - Lobbyismus und Wahlkampffinanzierung in den USA, in: Lammert, Christian/ Siewert, Markus/ Vormann, Boris (Hrsg.): Handbuch Politik USA, Wiesbaden: Springer, 1-21.