Course Description
With the emergence of green parties in Europe in the 1980s, a new form of political movement
emerged that put new issues on the political agenda and transformed the political space. One year
before the German federal elections, we analyze Bündnis90/die Grünen from a political sociology
perspective. Drawing on the theory of Lipset and Rokkan and issue voting approaches, we examine
the emergence of Bündnis90/die Grünen, the ideological positioning of the party and its voters in
the political space and the electoral potential of the Green party in Germany. We focus in particular
on changes over time and variation between regions and social groups. The seminar is divided into
3 thematic blocks:
I The green party’s location in the political space: We examine the origins of the rise of green
parties and discuss how their origins can be linked to existing or new cleavages.
II The political sociology of the green electorate: We analyze the electorate of green parties and
analyze the constants and differences in terms of socio-demographic indicators in different
regions and over time.
III Ideology and political positions of green voters: We investigate how green voters political
attitudes have developed over time, how they differ across social groups and regions. We
also study how green voters vary in terms of issue voting versus long-term ties and assess the
electoral potential for green parties as well as (potential) programmatic trade-offs.
The last part of the first term is dedicated to recording of an Audio Think Piece and the writing
and discussion of a research design that outlines the research question, the main argument(s),
expectations and empirical approach of the term paper. The research design will be presented and
subsequently discussed in the last session of the first term (see proof of requirements). |
