B Kittel
Biographic Data
| ID | 68008 |
|---|---|
| NAME | B Kittel |
| GIVEN NAMES | B |
| FAMILY NAME | Kittel |
| SIGNATURE | KITTEL B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Vienna |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9799-8310 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 47 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 450 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 47 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Internal and external validity reconsidered: Eliminating extraneous factors, understanding support factors
We salute the sociological science manifesto by Aksoy, Manzo, Birkelund, and Raub (2026). As experimental sociologists, we woud like to draw attention on one point of their argument, where they warn about the “external validity constraints” faced by experimental designs. What is external validity and why do we want it? After clarifying the logically asymmetric ideas of internal and external validity, we propose a renewed understanding of the latt…
Deepening, Bridging, and Moving Minds in Stressful Times
This article focuses on the effects of different communication modes – ‘contestatory’, ‘collaborative’, and ‘open’ (and two control groups – ‘information-only’ and a ‘placebo’ group) on reasoning and opinion formation in the context of conflictive collective decision problems. Focusing on two population-based survey experiments in Germany and Austria on the prioritization of health or freedom (Germany) and the introduction of mandatory vaccinatio…
Experimental Sociology: Outline of a Scientific Field
Experiments have gained prominence in sociology in recent years. Increased interest in testing causal theories through experimental designs has ignited a debate about which experimental designs can facilitate scientific progress in sociology. This book discusses the implications of research interests for the design of experiments, identifies points of commonality and disagreement among the different perspectives within sociology, and elaborates o…
Acceptance of political restrictions and societal polarization during the Covid-19 pandemic: A comparative study of Austria and Hungary
During the COVID-19 pandemic, some governments took measures to restrict political liberties, claiming that these restrictions were necessary to contain the spread of the virus. In this study, we scrutinize differences in citizens’ willingness to accept three types of political restrictions: restricting the media, banning protests, and introducing extensive state surveillance. We focus on two European countries: Austria and Hungary. While we find…
The Integration Resources of Refugees and Life Satisfaction: Evidence from the City of Vienna
Using data from a survey of refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, and Iraq in Vienna, Austria, most of whom arrived in 2015, we employ path analysis to study the effects of various integration resources on life satisfaction. In addition, we consider sociodemographic effects. We find that refugees who scored higher on host-country-specific language proficiency, social contacts, and a feeling of relatedness have significantly higher levels of lif…
More Satisfaction, Less Equality: Distributive Effects of Transparent Needs in a Laboratory Experiment
Societies are confronted with the dilemma that need satisfaction requires transparent individual needs. We study the effect of information about others' needs on the distribution of a joint endowment in a three-player network exchange game in a laboratory experiment. Need levels are exogenously given and either transparent (known to all three network members) or opaque (only known to the players themselves). The three players negotiate in dyads u…
Policy Concertation and Social Partnership in Western Europe: Lessons for the Twenty-first Century
Policy concertation - the determination of public policy by means of agreements struck between governments, employers and trade unions - continues to thrive in Western Europe despite the impact of liberalizing trends that were expected to lead to its demise. This volume brings together a team of 23 experts with the aim to undertake paired historical and political studies of policy concertation in ten West European countries, which were then subje…
Making and breaking coalitions: Strategic sophistication and prosociality in majority decisions
Scarring Dreams? Young People’s Vocational Aspirations and Expectations During and After Unemployment
Young people’s early‐career unemployment experience has been found to have long‐lasting effects, resulting in lower earnings even decades later. However, while this so‐called “scarring effect” is well established, there is still little knowledge about the mechanisms through which it comes about. We take a closer look at the period that produces the wounds that later turn to scars. Drawing on a panel survey in which young adults in Austria were in…
Information, reflection, and successful job search: A labor market policy experiment
Jobseekers, especially young people with little experience on the job market, face several challenges. They need to know which jobs are suited for them, where to find them, how to apply, and they need resilience in the face of repeated rejections. Previous research has shown that receiving information and reflecting on how to search for a job enhance self‐efficacy and search motivation, thereby reducing the duration of unemployment spells. Follow…
Conquering the labour market: The socioeconomic enablement of refugee women in Austria
Refugee women from the Near and Middle East face specific challenges when entering the Austrian labour market. Particularly gender-based factors, including care and reproductive work, exert pressure on these women and constitute major hurdles for successful entry into employment in Austria. Based on nine qualitative interviews with refugee women who swiftly gained entry to the labour market as well as ten qualitative interviews with experts from …
Need-Based Justice: A Sociological Perspective
The Austrian Corona Panel Project: Monitoring individual and societal dynamics amidst the Covid-19 crisis
Systematic and openly accessible data are vital to the scientific understanding of the social, political, and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article introduces the Austrian Corona Panel Project (ACPP), which has generated a unique, publicly available data set from late March 2020 onwards. ACPP has been designed to capture the social, political, and economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the Austrian population on a weekly…
What’s the Benefit of a Video? The Effect of Nonmaterial Incentives on Response Rate and Bias in Web Surveys
Traditional survey research faces declining response rates due to changing cultural habits and technological developments. Researchers have developed novel approaches to increase respondents’ likelihood of participating in web surveys. However, we lack information about whether these methods indeed increase response rates and, if so, whether they bias the resulting data. This article focuses on the use of nonmaterial incentives in the form of a v…
The Transmission of Work Centrality within the Family in a Cross-Regional Perspective
Young adults' work values evolve as they are socialized into education and work. We study a core concept of work values, work centrality, and distinguish between an extrinsic dimension, that is, the relative importance of work; and an intrinsic dimension, that is, nonfinancial employment commitment. Using data collected by the CUPESSE project on two generations of families in nine European countries, we explore the congruence of work values betwe…
Finding your way into employment against all odds? Successful job search of refugees in Austria
Labour market entry poses enormous challenges for recently arrived refugees, ranging from language barriers, devaluation of human capital, unfamiliarity with customs of the job search process to outright discrimination. How can refugees overcome these challenges and quickly enter gainful employment? In this paper, we draw on interviews with 26 male and female refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, conducted in 2017 and 2018, who came to…
Dissecting the Conditions of Political Protest. An Exploration of Interaction Effects in the Explanation of Political Protest
This study addresses the conditions for the participation in protest activities. Starting from social psychological value expectancy theory and the theory of collective action, we study the effects of political discontent, perceived political influence (efficacy), norms to participate, identity, and membership in protest encouraging networks ('social incentives') on protest. This study challenges the common assumption that these factors have addi…
Offers beyond the negotiating dyad: Including the excluded in a network exchange experiment
Perceived economic self-sufficiency: A country- and generation-comparative approach
Existing datasets provided by statistical agencies (e.g. Eurostat) show that the economic and financial crisis that unfolded in 2008 significantly impacted the lives and livelihoods of young people across Europe. Taking these official statistics as a starting point, the collaborative research project “Cultural Pathways to Economic Self-Sufficiency and Entrepreneurship in Europe” (CUPESSE) generated new survey data on the economic and social situa…
Scarred’ young entrepreneurs. Exploring young adults’ transition from former unemployment to self-employment
The recent increase in youth unemployment has major implications for the current and future development of European labour markets. Previous studies reveal the long lasting ‘scarring effects’ of early unemployment experience on later career prospects, including a higher probability of future unemployment or social exclusion. Self-employment is often advocated as a potential remedy for unemployment in general and youth unemployment in particular. …
Wirtschaftssoziologie
Less Supervision, More Satisficing? Comparing Completely Self-Administered Web-Surveys and Interviews Under Controlled Conditions
Although online surveys are becoming more and more prominent, the quality of the resulting data is still contested. One potential caveat of web surveys is the absence of an interviewer who controls the interview situation, can motivate respondents and prevent them from satisficing, i.e. answering questions with minimal cognitive effort. While there is evidence for differences between data gathered in interviewer-administered surveys and data from…
Dynamics of Voting Propensity: Experimental Tests of Adaptive Learning Models
This paper aims to deliver experimental evidence on the dispute between two behavioral models of electoral turnout. Both models share the idea that the subjects’ voting propensities are updated from their past propensities, aspirations, and realized payoffs. However, they differ in the exact specification of the feedback mechanism. The first model has a strong feedback mechanism toward 50 percent, while the other has only moderate feedback. This …
Public Sector Employment Regimes: Transformations of the State As an Employer
This book explores the extent to which a transformation of public employment regimes has taken place in four Western countries, and the factors influencing the pathways of reform. It demonstrates how
Majoritarian democracy undermines truth-finding in deliberative committees
The aggregated judgments of many usually outperform individual estimates of vaguely known facts. Communication among individuals may, however, undermine this wisdom-of-crowd effect because it makes judgments mutually dependent. Deliberative democratic theory, on the other hand, suggests that communication promotes correct decisions. We investigate this puzzle about the positive and negative consequences of consensus formation on the wisdom of cro…
How reliable is pooled analysis in political economy? The globalization‐welfare state nexus revisited
This article analyzes various pitfalls that arise in the application of panel data methods in comparative political economy. Empirically, we refer to the debate on the globalization‐welfare state nexus by re‐assessing a study by Garrett and Mitchell (‘Globalization, Government Spending and Taxation in the OECD’, European Journal of Political Research 39(1) (2001): 145–177). We discuss the properties of specifications with time invariate political…
Political parties, institutions, and the dynamics of social expenditure in times of austerity
The containment of social expenditure growth has been a core issue of public policy in advanced industrial countries since the 1980s and has received much academic attention. Among the most extensively discussed explanatory factors of social expenditure are partisan politics and political institutions, as well as the depend-ency of the real impact of the former on the latter. The paper distinguishes five competing theoretical perspec-tives and ex…
Sense and sensitivity in pooled analysis of political data
In recent years, pooled time–series cross–section data analysis has been advocated as a method for overcoming the ‘small N, many variables’ problem in comparative political economy in order to derive valid inferences from statistical comparisons of nation states. Moreover, the approach seemed promising in handling both comparisons among different countries and developments over time. However, due to the complex structure of pooled data sets, this…
A Crazy Methodology: On the Limits of Macro-Quantitative Social Science Research
Despite the great popularity of macro-quantitative comparative research in the social sciences during the past two decades, it has only had a limited lasting impact on the development of our understanding of social macro-phenomena. The lack of robustness appears to be symptomatic of research findings. The cause of this problem is the difficulty in dealing with complex macro-phenomena by means of statistical analysis. If international comparative …
The Bargaining System and Performance: A Comparison of 18 OECD Countries
Theoretical reasoning disagrees about what type of bargaining system performs best. The authors have tested the explanatory power of three competing hypotheses: neoliberalism, corporatism, and the hump-shape hypothesis. All of these hypotheses lack empirical support due to two main shortcomings. First, they ignore that wage restraint raises three distinct types of collective-action problems. Second, they do not consider qualitative differences am…
The Austrian Corona Panel Project: Monitoring individual and societal dynamics amidst the Covid-19 crisis
Systematic and openly accessible data are vital to the scientific understanding of the social, political, and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article introduces the Austrian Corona Panel Project (ACPP), which has generated a unique, publicly available data set from late March 2020 onwards. ACPP has been designed to capture the social, political, and economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the Austrian population on a weekly…
Finding your way into employment against all odds? Successful job search of refugees in Austria
Labour market entry poses enormous challenges for recently arrived refugees, ranging from language barriers, devaluation of human capital, unfamiliarity with customs of the job search process to outright discrimination. How can refugees overcome these challenges and quickly enter gainful employment? In this paper, we draw on interviews with 26 male and female refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, conducted in 2017 and 2018, who came to…
Perceived economic self-sufficiency: A country- and generation-comparative approach
Existing datasets provided by statistical agencies (e.g. Eurostat) show that the economic and financial crisis that unfolded in 2008 significantly impacted the lives and livelihoods of young people across Europe. Taking these official statistics as a starting point, the collaborative research project “Cultural Pathways to Economic Self-Sufficiency and Entrepreneurship in Europe” (CUPESSE) generated new survey data on the economic and social situa…
European Rigidity Versus American Flexibility? The Institutional Adaptability of Collective Bargaining
According to the unified theory, higher unemployment in Europe as compared to the United States is caused by higher wage rigidity, which, in turn, results from more 'inflexible' labor market institutions. Focusing on wage coordination, the empirical analysis shows that the variety of bargaining patterns across European countries and during the period1971to 1998contradicts a simple U.S.-Europe juxtaposition. Although some countries have to cope wi…
Mapping Political Methodology: Reflections on a european perspective
This article surveys two concomitant developments in European political methodology. First, we point to a recent methodological convergence across Europe and the Atlantic. Second, we note a broadening methodological divide between explanatory and interpretive approaches to political phenomena. This survey provides a backdrop for introducing a new ECPR Standing Group in Political Methodology as an outlet for new methodological techniques and a ven…
The Dynamics of Political Protest: Feedback Effects and Interdependence in the Explanation of Protest Participation
This article addresses three largely unsolved problems in theory and research on political protest. The first problem concerns feedback effects. The common assumption is that protest is determined by various factors and does not influence its determinants. We propose and test hypotheses about feedback effects of protest on its determinants. The second issue is the usual assumption that the determinants do not influence each other. We propose and …
A structural fit between states and markets? Public administration regimes and market economy models in the OECD
This article examines the relationship between public administration regimes and market economy models in 20 member countries from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Building on Pollitt and Bouckaert's (2004) description of politico-administrative regimes, we compile a data set of cross-national public administration indicators to explore public employment and politico-administrative regulation. Our explorative sta…
Introduction: Reassessing the Methodology of Process Tracing
Although having been practised in the Social Sciences for decades, it was only in recent years that process tracing has gained prominence in methodological debates in political science. In spite of its popularity, however, there has been little success in formalising its methodology, defining its standards, and identifying its range of applicability. This symposium aims at furthering our understanding of the methodology by discussing four essenti…
Deaustrification? The policy‐area‐specific evolution of Austrian social partnership
Recently, the functioning of Austrian Social Partnership has been increasingly questioned. If this interpretation of current strains on the relations between the state and the main economic interest organizations would be correct, Austria would become a significant case in favor of disorganization theory. However, on the basis of case studies in fields of social and economic policy-making crucial for international competitiveness (working time, v…
Communication and Voting in Multi‐party Elections: An Experimental Study
We investigate communication and costly voting in multi‐party election experiments. Turnout is consistently lower across electorate communication as compared with restricted communication within parties. Voters are more likely to choose the strategic voting option at the outset in restricted communication but more likely to start deliberation by stating their first preference when unrestricted. Distributions of earnings are more inequitable when …
Scarring Dreams? Young People’s Vocational Aspirations and Expectations During and After Unemployment
Young people’s early‐career unemployment experience has been found to have long‐lasting effects, resulting in lower earnings even decades later. However, while this so‐called “scarring effect” is well established, there is still little knowledge about the mechanisms through which it comes about. We take a closer look at the period that produces the wounds that later turn to scars. Drawing on a panel survey in which young adults in Austria were in…
The Transmission of Work Centrality within the Family in a Cross-Regional Perspective
Young adults' work values evolve as they are socialized into education and work. We study a core concept of work values, work centrality, and distinguish between an extrinsic dimension, that is, the relative importance of work; and an intrinsic dimension, that is, nonfinancial employment commitment. Using data collected by the CUPESSE project on two generations of families in nine European countries, we explore the congruence of work values betwe…
Dissecting the Conditions of Political Protest. An Exploration of Interaction Effects in the Explanation of Political Protest
This study addresses the conditions for the participation in protest activities. Starting from social psychological value expectancy theory and the theory of collective action, we study the effects of political discontent, perceived political influence (efficacy), norms to participate, identity, and membership in protest encouraging networks ('social incentives') on protest. This study challenges the common assumption that these factors have addi…
Scarred’ young entrepreneurs. Exploring young adults’ transition from former unemployment to self-employment
The recent increase in youth unemployment has major implications for the current and future development of European labour markets. Previous studies reveal the long lasting ‘scarring effects’ of early unemployment experience on later career prospects, including a higher probability of future unemployment or social exclusion. Self-employment is often advocated as a potential remedy for unemployment in general and youth unemployment in particular. …
Mixed language usage in Belarus: The Sociostructural Background of Language Choice
This article reports findings from a survey on language usage in Belarus, which encompasses bilingual Belarusian and Russian. First, the distribution of language usage is discussed. Then the dependency of language usage on some sociocultural conditions is explored. Finally, the changes in language usage over three generations are discussed. We find that a mixed Belarusian–Russian form of speech is widely used in the cities studied and that it is …
Political Science Methodology: Opening Windows Across Europe … and the Atlantic
In the following essay, Benoît Rihoux, Bernhard Kittel and Jonathon W. Moses outline the recent developments in European political methodology and highlight their own work in developing a number of projects with the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) that include establishing a Standing Group in Political Methodology, the ECPR Summer School in Methods and Techniques and the forthcoming ECPR/Palgrave Macmillan Research Methods Book …
Acceptance of political restrictions and societal polarization during the Covid-19 pandemic: A comparative study of Austria and Hungary
During the COVID-19 pandemic, some governments took measures to restrict political liberties, claiming that these restrictions were necessary to contain the spread of the virus. In this study, we scrutinize differences in citizens’ willingness to accept three types of political restrictions: restricting the media, banning protests, and introducing extensive state surveillance. We focus on two European countries: Austria and Hungary. While we find…
The Integration Resources of Refugees and Life Satisfaction: Evidence from the City of Vienna
Using data from a survey of refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, and Iraq in Vienna, Austria, most of whom arrived in 2015, we employ path analysis to study the effects of various integration resources on life satisfaction. In addition, we consider sociodemographic effects. We find that refugees who scored higher on host-country-specific language proficiency, social contacts, and a feeling of relatedness have significantly higher levels of lif…
Conquering the labour market: The socioeconomic enablement of refugee women in Austria
Refugee women from the Near and Middle East face specific challenges when entering the Austrian labour market. Particularly gender-based factors, including care and reproductive work, exert pressure on these women and constitute major hurdles for successful entry into employment in Austria. Based on nine qualitative interviews with refugee women who swiftly gained entry to the labour market as well as ten qualitative interviews with experts from …
What’s the Benefit of a Video? The Effect of Nonmaterial Incentives on Response Rate and Bias in Web Surveys
Traditional survey research faces declining response rates due to changing cultural habits and technological developments. Researchers have developed novel approaches to increase respondents’ likelihood of participating in web surveys. However, we lack information about whether these methods indeed increase response rates and, if so, whether they bias the resulting data. This article focuses on the use of nonmaterial incentives in the form of a v…
Sozialpartnerschaft und Disorganisierung: Veränderung und Kontinuität der Entscheidungsstrukturen in der Österreichischen Arbeitszeitpolitik
Die Disorganisierungstheorie unterstellt einen säkularen Trend zur Dezentralisierung und Deregulierung der Arbeitsbeziehungen sowie zur Schwächung der Interessenorganisationen der Arbeitnehmer. Im Aufsatz wird anhand einer Fallstudie zur Arbeitszeitpolitik untersucht, ob ein solcher Trend auch in Österreich als “Musterbeispiel” eines neokorporatistisch organisierten Landes nachweisbar ist. Anhand eines Vergleichs der Entscheidungsprozesse im Bere…
Sense and sensitivity in pooled analysis of political data
In recent years, pooled time-series cross-section data analysis has been advocated as a method for overcoming the small N, many variables problem in comparative political economy in order to derive valid inferences from statistical comparisons of nation states. Moreover, the approach seemed promising in handling both comparisons among different countries and developments over time. However, due to the complex structure of pooled data sets, this a…
Sense and sensitivity in pooled analysis of political data
In recent years, pooled time–series cross–section data analysis has been advocated as a method for overcoming the ‘small N, many variables’ problem in comparative political economy in order to derive valid inferences from statistical comparisons of nation states. Moreover, the approach seemed promising in handling both comparisons among different countries and developments over time. However, due to the complex structure of pooled data sets, this…
Deaustrification? The policy‐area‐specific evolution of Austrian social partnership
Recently, the functioning of Austrian Social Partnership has been increasingly questioned. If this interpretation of current strains on the relations between the state and the main economic interest organizations would be correct, Austria would become a significant case in favor of disorganization theory. However, on the basis of case studies in fields of social and economic policy-making crucial for international competitiveness (working time, v…
The Bargaining System and Performance: A Comparison of 18 OECD Countries
Theoretical reasoning disagrees about what type of bargaining system performs best. The authors have tested the explanatory power of three competing hypotheses: neoliberalism, corporatism, and the hump-shape hypothesis. All of these hypotheses lack empirical support due to two main shortcomings. First, they ignore that wage restraint raises three distinct types of collective-action problems. Second, they do not consider qualitative differences am…
National Labour Relations in Internationalized Markets: A Comparative Study of Institutions, Change and Performance
The regulation of the labour market by industrial-relations institutions has been an important theme in sociology, political science, economics, and jurisprudence. What has particularly attracted attention from a comparative perspective is the astonishing variety of national labour-relations institutions. This variety, when confronted with persistent economic internationalisation raises two main questions. First, does internationalisation impose …
National Labour Relations in Internationalized Markets: A Comparative Study of Institutions, Change, and Performance
Parteien, Institutionen und Wohlfahrtsstaat: Politisch-institutionelle Determinanten der Sozialpolitik in OECD-Ländern
Wohlfahrtsstaat bzw. die im deutschen Sprachraum geläufigere Bezeichnung Sozialstaat beschreibt einen allen OECD-Demokratien gemeinsamen Typus von Staatstätigkeit, der in fast allen Ländern die größte Ausgabenkomponente des öffentlichen Haushalts darstellt (Schmidt 2001b: 34; vgl. Cusack/Fuchs i.d.B.). Kennzeichen dieses Typus von Staatstätigkeit sind staatliche Interventionen in Marktprozesse mit dem Zweck einer Förderung individueller Lebens- u…
Political parties, institutions, and the dynamics of social expenditure in times of austerity
The containment of social expenditure growth has been a core issue of public policy in advanced industrial countries since the 1980s and has received much academic attention. Among the most extensively discussed explanatory factors of social expenditure are partisan politics and political institutions, as well as the depend-ency of the real impact of the former on the latter. The paper distinguishes five competing theoretical perspec-tives and ex…
Mapping Political Methodology: Reflections on a european perspective
This article surveys two concomitant developments in European political methodology. First, we point to a recent methodological convergence across Europe and the Atlantic. Second, we note a broadening methodological divide between explanatory and interpretive approaches to political phenomena. This survey provides a backdrop for introducing a new ECPR Standing Group in Political Methodology as an outlet for new methodological techniques and a ven…
How reliable is pooled analysis in political economy? The globalization‐welfare state nexus revisited
This article analyzes various pitfalls that arise in the application of panel data methods in comparative political economy. Empirically, we refer to the debate on the globalization‐welfare state nexus by re‐assessing a study by Garrett and Mitchell (‘Globalization, Government Spending and Taxation in the OECD’, European Journal of Political Research 39(1) (2001): 145–177). We discuss the properties of specifications with time invariate political…
European Rigidity Versus American Flexibility? The Institutional Adaptability of Collective Bargaining
According to the unified theory, higher unemployment in Europe as compared to the United States is caused by higher wage rigidity, which, in turn, results from more 'inflexible' labor market institutions. Focusing on wage coordination, the empirical analysis shows that the variety of bargaining patterns across European countries and during the period1971to 1998contradicts a simple U.S.-Europe juxtaposition. Although some countries have to cope wi…
A Crazy Methodology: On the Limits of Macro-Quantitative Social Science Research
Despite the great popularity of macro-quantitative comparative research in the social sciences during the past two decades, it has only had a limited lasting impact on the development of our understanding of social macro-phenomena. The lack of robustness appears to be symptomatic of research findings. The cause of this problem is the difficulty in dealing with complex macro-phenomena by means of statistical analysis. If international comparative …
Social Expenditure Under Scrutiny: The Problems of Using Aggregate Spending Data for Assessing Welfare State Dynamics
With contributions from leading international scholars, this important book presents a comprehensive examination of conventional indicators (such as social spending), available alternatives (including social rights and conditionality), as well as principal concepts of how to capture change (for example convergence and de-familization). By providing an in-depth discussion of the most salient aspects of the ‘dependent variable problem’, the editors…
Political Science Methodology: Opening Windows Across Europe … and the Atlantic
In the following essay, Benoît Rihoux, Bernhard Kittel and Jonathon W. Moses outline the recent developments in European political methodology and highlight their own work in developing a number of projects with the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) that include establishing a Standing Group in Political Methodology, the ECPR Summer School in Methods and Techniques and the forthcoming ECPR/Palgrave Macmillan Research Methods Book …
Mixed language usage in Belarus: The Sociostructural Background of Language Choice
This article reports findings from a survey on language usage in Belarus, which encompasses bilingual Belarusian and Russian. First, the distribution of language usage is discussed. Then the dependency of language usage on some sociocultural conditions is explored. Finally, the changes in language usage over three generations are discussed. We find that a mixed Belarusian–Russian form of speech is widely used in the cities studied and that it is …
A structural fit between states and markets? Public administration regimes and market economy models in the OECD
This article examines the relationship between public administration regimes and market economy models in 20 member countries from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Building on Pollitt and Bouckaert's (2004) description of politico-administrative regimes, we compile a data set of cross-national public administration indicators to explore public employment and politico-administrative regulation. Our explorative sta…
The Dynamics of Political Protest: Feedback Effects and Interdependence in the Explanation of Protest Participation
This article addresses three largely unsolved problems in theory and research on political protest. The first problem concerns feedback effects. The common assumption is that protest is determined by various factors and does not influence its determinants. We propose and test hypotheses about feedback effects of protest on its determinants. The second issue is the usual assumption that the determinants do not influence each other. We propose and …
Der soziale Hintergrund von Sprachwahlen in Belarus: Eine sprachsoziologische Analyse der „gemischten Rede“
Introduction: Reassessing the Methodology of Process Tracing
Although having been practised in the Social Sciences for decades, it was only in recent years that process tracing has gained prominence in methodological debates in political science. In spite of its popularity, however, there has been little success in formalising its methodology, defining its standards, and identifying its range of applicability. This symposium aims at furthering our understanding of the methodology by discussing four essenti…
Politisches Vertrauen in Europa: Das Zusammenwirken von Demokratiequalität und Korruption
Communication and Voting in Multi‐party Elections: An Experimental Study
We investigate communication and costly voting in multi‐party election experiments. Turnout is consistently lower across electorate communication as compared with restricted communication within parties. Voters are more likely to choose the strategic voting option at the outset in restricted communication but more likely to start deliberation by stating their first preference when unrestricted. Distributions of earnings are more inequitable when …
Public Sector Employment Regimes: Transformations of the State As an Employer
This book explores the extent to which a transformation of public employment regimes has taken place in four Western countries, and the factors influencing the pathways of reform. It demonstrates how
Majoritarian democracy undermines truth-finding in deliberative committees
The aggregated judgments of many usually outperform individual estimates of vaguely known facts. Communication among individuals may, however, undermine this wisdom-of-crowd effect because it makes judgments mutually dependent. Deliberative democratic theory, on the other hand, suggests that communication promotes correct decisions. We investigate this puzzle about the positive and negative consequences of consensus formation on the wisdom of cro…
Dynamics of Voting Propensity: Experimental Tests of Adaptive Learning Models
This paper aims to deliver experimental evidence on the dispute between two behavioral models of electoral turnout. Both models share the idea that the subjects’ voting propensities are updated from their past propensities, aspirations, and realized payoffs. However, they differ in the exact specification of the feedback mechanism. The first model has a strong feedback mechanism toward 50 percent, while the other has only moderate feedback. This …
Political science (34 works) · Economics (30 works) · Sociology (22 works) · Law (19 works) · Politics (18 works) · Computer Science (15 works) · Psychology (15 works) · Law (14 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (14 works) · Social Psychology (12 works)