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Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Merkel

Portrait Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Merkel (Wolfgang Merkel, Foto: David Ausserhofer)
Research Fields
  • Political regimes: Democracy - dictatorships
  • Democratization
  • Political parties
  • Social democracy
  • Social justice
Contact
fon: +49 30 25491 330
fax: +49 30 25491 345
mail: wolfgang [dot] merkel [at] wzb [dot] eu
Office:
Gudrun Mouna
fon: +49 30 25491-321
fax: +49 30 25491-345
mail: mouna [at] wzb [dot] eu
Reichpietschufer 50
D-10785 Berlin
Director of the Research Unit
Democracy and Democratization
Head of the
WZB Rule of Law Center
Head of the Bridging Project
The Political Sociology of Cosmopolitanism and Communitarianism
CV

2007
Appointment as a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities

since 2004
Director of the research unit "Democracy: Structures, Performance, Challenges" at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB)

Professor of Comparative Political Science and Democracy Research, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Faculty of Arts III, Department of Social Sciences

1998
Call for a professorship in political science (C4) from the University of Heidelberg

1994
Acceptance of a call for a professorship in political science/comparative governance (C3) from the University of Mainz


Selected Publications
  • Merkel, Wolfgang (2010): Systemtransformation. Eine Einführung in die Theorie und Empirie der Transformationsforschung. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 561 S.
  • Merkel, Wolfgang/Grimm, Sonja (Eds.) (2009): War and Democratization. Legality, Legitimacy and Effectiveness. London/New York, NY: Routledge, 218 S.
  • Merkel, Wolfgang/Petring, Alexander/Henkes, Christian/Egle, Christoph (2008): Social Democracy in Power. The Capacity to Reform. Routledge Research in Comparative Politics. London/New York, NY: Routledge, XVII, 309 S.
  • Merkel, Wolfgang (2010): "Are Dictatorships Returning? Revisiting the 'Democratic Rollback' Hypothesis". In: Contemporary Politics, Vol. 16, No. 1, Special Issue "Promoting Democracy - Promoting Autocracy? International Politics and National Political Regimes", edited by Ian Holliday, S. 17-31.

Merkel, Wolfgang (2004): "Embedded and Defective Democracies". In: Aurel Croissant/Wolfgang Merkel (Eds.): Special Issue of Democratization: Consolidated or Defective Democracy? Problems of Regime Change, Vol. 11, No. 5, pp. 33-58

 

Projects

2011-2014
Critical Junctures and the Survival of Dictatorships. Explaining the Stability of Autocratic Regimes, funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG)
Participating scientists: Wolfgang Merkel, Christoph Stefes, Alexander Schmotz, Johannes Gerschewski, Dag Tanneberg

2010-2014
The Political Sociology of Cosmopolitanism and Communitarianism
Funding: WZB
Project directors: Wolfgang Merkel, Ruud Koopmans, Michael Zürn
Participating scientists: Onawa Promise Lacewell, Céline Teney, Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser, Pieter de Wilde

since 2005
Democracy Barometer, NCCR Democracy, University of Zurich, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation
Project leaders:  Wolfgang Merkel, Daniel Bochsler (Centre for Democracy Studies Aarau)
Participating scientists: Marc Bühlmann (University of Berne), Heiko Giebler, Bernhard Weßels
Doctoral student: Lisa Müller (Centre for Democracy Studies Aarau)