If you believe some media and people in power, then all countries in the world are democracies or at least on the way to becoming one. In fact, there is hardly a country in which elections are not held from time to time.

But are elections a sufficient indication that a state is a democracy? What is meant by “democracy” anyway? And is democracy per se something desirable? If so, under what conditions do democracies emerge? What are the prerequisites for their functioning and stability? What role do citizens play in this?

There are very different types of democracies: how do these differences affect their performance? And is it true that democracies are generally peaceful? If so, can democratic institutions and democratic political cultures be exported to all countries?

We face questions like these every day. On the Master’s degree course in Politics and Democracy Research, you will develop well-founded answers to these questions based on the latest research findings.

Here you will deepen your knowledge of the theory of science and the analytical, qualitative and quantitative methods of political science. Our aim is to enable you to critically evaluate the empirical work of others and to conduct your own studies in a theory-based and methodologically sound manner. Upon successful completion of this module, you will receive the Mainz Methods Certificate (upon application)

Here you will learn more about the emergence and development, functioning and performance of democracies, party systems and electoral systems. You will learn to systematically describe, analyze and compare political institutions and processes at national, European and international level.

Among other things, you will deal with specific empirical, but also normativen theories of democracy and acquire the foundations to be able to conduct theory-based empirical democracy research.

This is the home of research on political attitudes: It is about political attitudes in general and political culture in particular, social values and value orientations, political socialization and attitudes towards democracy, political extremism, populism and especially Euroscepticism as well as political and social trust.

Theories and empirical findings on political behavior in Germany and in international comparison form the focus of this module. Specifically, it deals with political participation, elections and voter behavior, election campaigns and political communication as well as direct democracy.

Here you will work on your own study, from formulating the research question and theoretical assumptions to collecting, analyzing and interpreting data, documents and materials and presenting the results. To this end, every semester, usually on the first Friday of the lecture period, a “Project Day” takes place, a small academic conference to which all students and lecturers of the Department of Political Science are invited to discuss your project with you.

You have the choice: you can do a nine-week internship in a policy-related field OR

  • participate in courses from the B.A. Political Science on subject-specific method applications (advanced module I) and/or on professional field qualifications (practical module) OR also
  • attend courses offered at JGU outside of Political Science (such as the Master’s courses offered by Studium Generale or language or IT courses)
  • or combine these options to achieve a total of 12 credit points.

You will attend at least one colloquium to discuss ideas for your Master’s thesis as well as methodological and content-related problems that arise during the writing process with fellow students and supervisors. You have four months to write the thesis. Finally, you will briefly present your key findings in a 45-minute oral examination (15 minutes) and then answer questions on two further topics from two different modules of the M.A. Political and Democratic Research (30 minutes) in consultation with your examiners.

The Department recommends a sequence of modules in the form of study plans. This recommendation should enable you to complete your studies within four semesters. However, you can also design your course of study individually and deviate from the recommendation.

You will find the recommended study plan together with the examination regulations, the subject-specific appendix and the module handbook in the Download Center.

A project seminar is offered each semester, accompanied by an exercise in a small group.

a) The project report:

+ Submission deadline: The submission deadline for module examinations in the form of a term paper applies.

+ Scope:
i) If the project is carried out by one student, the requirements for a module examination in the form of a term paper in the Master’s degree programs apply.
ii) If the project is carried out by a group, the following applies:
– The independent contribution of each group member must be clearly recognizable and the individual contribution of each group member must comprise at least 10 pages.
– The report is preceded by a joint introduction; it is concluded by a joint conclusion. The group members are equally responsible for the quality of these parts.

b) The project presentation:

+ The project presentation consists of the presentation of the project (topic, method, results) and a subsequent discussion with questions from the audience.

+ 15 minutes are available for the presentation, followed by a 15-minute discussion. Groups with four or more members have 20 minutes each for presentation and discussion.

+ If a student is unable to attend the date of the presentation, the following applies:
i) an excuse must be submitted to the lecturer immediately in the form of a medical certificate or other official confirmation stating that it was not the fault of the person concerned that they missed the appointment.
ii) the lecturer agrees an alternative date with the person concerned.
iii) for group presentations: the other members of the project group must be able to fill the gap created by the missing contribution in such a way that the presentation as a whole is coherent.

The assessment is based on the overall impression of the written and oral performance. The oral performance confirms or corrects the impression of the written performance; this is possible both upwards and downwards, but to a maximum of +/- 1.0.

Both performances must be completed with at least a sufficient result. This is not the case if
i) the work is completed but at least one of them is not graded as “sufficient”,
ii) the project report is not submitted on time,
iii) the project presentation is missed without excuse.

The module examination is then deemed not to have been completed.

So that you can better plan when and with whom you want to carry out your project, you will find the provisional list of providers of the project module in the next two to three semesters. Please note: the information is of course always subject to change.

M.A. Political and Democratic Research (previously: “M.A. Empirical Democratic Research”): Contents – Module 7

As part of the practical module, you can do an internship of at least 9 weeks or combine a shorter internship with courses or only attend courses. There is a wide range of options available to you

  • from the B.A. Political Science, major, advanced module/practical module: you will receive 3 CP in each of the seminars on professional qualification or application of methods;
  • of the Studium Generale: Both the lecture and the corresponding exercise must be attended in one semester: 6 CP;
  • of the ISSK: language courses. The number of CPs specified by the ISSK applies;
  • of the ZDV: EDP courses. Provided they were offered weekly throughout the semester: 3 CP;
  • other “providers” at JGU (except university sports). The number of ECTS credits specified by the “provider” applies. Please read the relevant information in the module handbook on what to do if this is a lecture.
  • NEW: Many subjects now offer certificates. Such a certificate can also be recognized to the extent of 12 LP in practical module 7. If you have any questions, please contact the internship coordinator.

As soon as you register for the internship module in Jogustine, you will have access to the Moodle course “Internship”. There you will find all relevant information about the internship as well as a checklist of aspects that need to be considered (from the form for certifying that the internship is compulsory to the instructions for the internship report).

The credits you earn as part of the internship module are not automatically recorded in Jogustine, but must be recognized. This means: as soon as you have acquired the required 12 credit points, please contact the internship officer (currently Dr. Annette Schmitt) by email so that the recognition certificate can be issued for the examination office.

General information on the organization of internships at the department can be found under the following link:

We have established partnerships with a number of internships. This list is constantly being expanded.

Two of you now have the opportunity to get to know the practice of democratic decision-making at the Rhineland-Palatinate Centre of Democracy – to observe, analyze and help shape it. Apply to the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament by mid-October 2025 for a 6-week internship between February 16 and April 13, 2026.

Please send your written application stating

  • of your study program and
  • with the identifier “PolWissJGU2026″,

together with Curriculum vitae, certificates and certificate of study

to:

State Parliament Rhineland-Palatinate

Claudia Weirich

Central Division, Unit Z 1

Personnel administration

Platz der Mainzer Republik 1, 55116 Mainz, Telephone: 06131/208-2540

E-Mail: Praktikum@landtag.rlp.de

You

  • gain an insight into the goals and working methods of the DGB its structure and its subordinate trade unions;
  • are integrated into the political education work of the DGB;
  • organize events with political decision-makers (and actively participate in them);
  • are in the press work and the social media presence of the DGB and
  • involved in political lobbying by contributing to draft legislation,

and you will receive a monthly remuneration of 963€.

Interested?

Please apply by May 30, 2025 for an internship starting August 1, 2025 (of at least two months).

Please send your application to the DGB-Landesbüro Mainz, Kaiserstraße 26-30, 55116 Mainz: Bewerbungen.rps@dgb.de.

The application should include:

  • a convincing letter of application;
  • Curriculum vitae;
  • Your BA certificate and, if applicable, work and internship references.

If you have any questions, please contact the internship officer for the Master’s degree programs: Dr. Annette Schmitt (schmitt@politik.uni-mainz.de)

Why a Master’s in Political and Democratic Research?

  • Because your interest in political science issues was awakened during your Bachelor’s degree and you would like to expand and deepen what you have learned.
  • Because you believe that addressing the conditions and consequences of democracy is one of the most important issues of our time.
  • Because democracy research is the supreme discipline of political science.
  • Because you want to improve your prospects of an interesting and well-paid job after graduation.

Because you….

From Bachelor to Master

If you have a Bachelor’s degree from Johannes Gutenberg University or another German university, it is possible to be enrolled in both the Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs for one semester. This regulation is intended to enable you to start the Master’s degree program even though you have not yet been credited with all the work you have completed as part of the Bachelor’s degree program and therefore do not yet have your Bachelor’s certificate. It is not intended that you will complete substantial work in the Bachelor’s program during the first semester of the Master’s program. The Master’s program is a full-time course. So you have enough to do to fulfill all the Master’s requirements and no time to write a Bachelor’s thesis on the fly.

Please note that you must submit your Bachelor’s certificate to the Registrar’s Office by the end of the first semester of the Master’s degree program without being asked to do so; otherwise your admission to the Master’s degree program will be revoked.

For applicants from abroad: A Bachelor’s degree certificate (or proof of an equivalent first university degree) must be submitted at the time of application.

Those who can provide evidence of 6 but fewer than 10 credit points in statistics and methods of empirical social research must actively participate in the small group “Statistics II” within the first two semesters and have the option of attending the lecture “Statistics II”. The small group and lecture are offered every winter semester, so that the admission requirements are already fulfilled after the first semester in the case of regular admission to the winter semester. Active participation in the intensively supervised small group, in which existing gaps are identified and remedied, ensures that you are well equipped to meet the methodological requirements of the rest of the course. And the effort is worth it in any case: see Mainz Methods Certificate!

In the Master

You can see which additional courses you can attend under which conditions in Jogustine under “Additional courses in the M.A. ‘Political and Democratic Research'”.

This is probably because you did not pay attention to the module context when registering: Let’s assume a module consists of a lecture and two seminars: they form the three building blocks of this module (lecture, seminar 1 and seminar 2). Although you can register for more than one course per module, you will only ever be admitted to ONE course PER module! This means that if you specify several seminars when registering for seminar module 1 in module x, you will only be admitted to one of these seminars, regardless of the fact that there are still places available in the other seminars.

It is possible to participate in further seminars within a module in addition to the compulsory courses, provided that the module has not yet been successfully completed. A module is successfully completed when all coursework (course attendance, coursework in the courses) has been completed and the module examination has been successfully passed.

The “exercise” is now called “small group” and can also be found there in the annotated course catalog.

You must then submit a medical certificate to the Student Office (your contact person is Ms. Dagmar McCaslin) in order to obtain an extension of the deadline. You can download the form in the Download Center.

The colloquium is a compulsory part of the final module.

  • Here you have the opportunity to present your M.A. thesis, e.g. your research question and structure, method and theoretical foundation.
  • However, you can also attend more than one colloquium, for example to discuss questions and problems that have arisen while writing. The only requirement is that you register for all further colloquia as “additional work”.