Research

In my research, I focus on the analysis of political systems from different aspects. On the one hand, I analyze political systems from the citizens‘ perspective, where I focus on studying political behavior and attitudes at both the national and local level. My work here aims to explain voter preferences and attitudes toward political representation, democracy and coalitions. I am interested in analyzing voters‘ candidate choice, paying particular attention to the influence of populist attitudes and preferences for representation. On the other hand, I focus on party competition in political systems. Ianalyze the impact of populist actors on politics. At the local level, my research focuses on party competition and the success of Independent Local Lists (ILL).

Publications:

12. 2025. Was beeinflusst die Wahl von Unabhängigen Wählergemeinschaften? Eine Analyse am Beispiel der Kommunalwahlen in Hessen und Schleswig-Holstein, in: Kerstin Völkl und Michael Jankowski (Eds.): Gemeinderatswahlen im deutschen Mehrebenensystem, Springer VS (with Marion Reiser and Michael Jankowski)

11. 2025. Party Politics at the Local Level: Introduction to the Special Issue, Swiss Political Science Review, 31(2): 169-179 (with Raf Reuse, Martin Gross, Simon Otjes and Michael Jankowski)

10. 2024. Descriptive Representation and Populism, in: Robert A. Huber and Michael Jankowski (Eds.): Populism: An Introduction, Sage.

9. 2024. Voting Against Parties: Populist Attitudes, Party Supply, and Support for Non-Partisan Actors.  Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 34(4): 746-769 (with Michael Jankowski and Markus Tepe)

8. 2024. The Impact of Government Participation on the Political Trust of Populist Party Supporters. Government and Opposition, 59(2): 425-440.

7. 2024. Do voters want their parties to be office- or policy-seekers in coalition negotiations? West European Politics, 47(6): 1333-1362 (with Martin Gross, Michael Jankowski and Florian Erlbruch)

6. 2023. Populist Parties and the Two-Dimensional Policy Space. European Journal of Political Research 62(3): 989-1004 (with Robert A. Huber and Michael Jankowski)

5. 2023. Who wants COVID-19 Vaccination to be Compulsory? The Impact of Party Cues, Left-Right Ideology and Populism. Politics 43(3): 330-350 (with Michael Jankowski, Robert A. Huber, Torren Frank, Leena Maas and Markus Tepe)

4. 2022. Turning a blind eye on the black sheep. When are voters loyal to corrupt politicians? Acta Politica (online first, with Michael Jankowski and Marcel Lewandowsky)

3. 2022. The Impact of Anti-Establishment Parties on the Electoral Success of Independent Local Lists. Evidence from Germany. Party Politics 28(1): 127-136 (with Michael Jankowski and Markus Tepe)

2. 2021. Abstiegserfahrungen in der Kommune und der Aufstieg Unabhängiger Wählergemeinschaften. Neue Befunde aus einem Mehrebenen-Kommunalwahlpanel. Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen 52(1): 59-77 (with Markus Tepe and Michael Jankowski)

1. 2019. NieKom. Eine neue Datenbasis für die kommunale Wahl- und Policyforschung in Niedersachsen. dms – der moderne staat 12(2): 465-471 (with Michael Jankowski, Markus Tepe and Florian Erlbruch)

Current Projects:

  1. Perceptions of Electoral Integrity in Germany
  2. Candidate Choice in European Parliament Elections: A Conjoint Experiment (with Christian Stecker and Michèle Knodt)
  3. Coalition preferences in the context of the German state elections 2024 (with Martin Gross and Christian Stecker)

4. Perceptions of Left-Right Ideology (with Michael Jankowski and Martin Gross)