{"id":14788,"date":"2025-05-15T10:56:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T08:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.zdv.uni-mainz.de\/fb02-politikwissenschaft\/?page_id=14788"},"modified":"2025-07-20T15:14:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T13:14:46","slug":"m-a-politik-und-demokratieforschung","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/politik.uni-mainz.de\/en\/homepage\/students\/m-a-politik-und-demokratieforschung\/","title":{"rendered":"M.A. Political and Democratic Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/jgu-base-pageheader>\n \n<\/jgu-base-anchornavigation><\/jgu-base-testimonial>\n

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.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

But are elections a sufficient indication that a state is a democracy? <\/a>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? <\/p>\n\n

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? <\/p>\n\n

We face questions like these every day. On the Master’s degree course in Politics and Democracy Research<\/strong>, you will develop well-founded answers<\/strong> to these questions based on the latest research findings. <\/p>\n\n \n<\/jgu-base-buttonitem>\n\n<\/jgu-base-button>\n

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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) <\/p>\n\n\n\n \n<\/jgu-base-buttonitem>\n\n<\/jgu-base-button>\n\n<\/jgu-base-accordionitem>\n\n\n \n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n<\/jgu-base-accordionitem>\n\n\n \n\n

Among other things, you will deal with specific empirical, but also normative<\/a>n theories of democracy and acquire the foundations to be able to conduct theory-based empirical democracy research.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/jgu-base-accordionitem>\n\n\n \n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/jgu-base-accordionitem>\n\n\n \n\n

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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. <\/p>\n\n\n<\/jgu-base-accordionitem>\n\n\n \n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n<\/jgu-base-accordionitem>\n\n\n \n\n

You have the choice: you can do a nine-week internship in a policy-related field OR<\/p>\n\n\n\n