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Theoretical background and objectives

This project draws on survey data which have been gathered in the project "Religious Fundamentalism and Radicalization in Comparative Perspective" in 8 different countries, namely Germany, United States, Cyprus, Turkey, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, and Kenia.

This project focuses on the relationship between co-determination and sustainable company practices in German companies. The first phase of the project involved the development of an innovative six-component co-determination index MB-ix (Mitbestimmungsindex) which measures the degree of embeddedness of worker participation in companies. Subsequent phases of the project have examined the relationship between co-determination (measured by the MB-ix) and the following elements of sustainable company practices:

With close to 250 million international migrants, and almost 65 million refugees and displaced people, the topic of newcomer integration has become one of the most pressing issues of our time. Private individuals and organizations in the receiving countries have helped refugees in different ways, yet their actions have often been considered goodwill — voluntarism, charity, and philanthropic initiatives — rather than an individual responsibility. What should be the role of individuals in newcomer integration? Is there an individual responsibility and what could it demand from individual agents?

The short project examines the situation of trade unions in the South-Eastern European automotive supplier industry. It investigates in particular the organizing concepts of the existing trade union federations and the evolution of new plant-level trade union organizations. The aim is to identify levers and concepts to strengthen the presence and influence of trade unions in the automotive supplier industry.

The project is realized in cooperation with Monika Martiskova (Slovakia), Tibor Meszmann (Serbia) and Stefan Guga (Romania). 

It has long been known that democracies rely on written laws and constitutions. A democracy can’t survive without a democratic constitution. But democracies rely not just onwritten constitutions alone but also upon unwritten rules --or democratic norms. Norms matter at the level of politicians and how they interact with each other and at the level of every-day politics of citizens. Two of the most significant norms for the functioning of democracy have been the norm of mutual toleration (“gegenseitige Achtung”) and forbearance (“Zurückhaltung”). Politicians, if they follow the written law, can still assault democracy by violating democratic norms.

Understandings of Democracy Project 

The term "democracy" can take on a plethora of meanings - in political science as much as in the real world. What “democracy” means often differs drastically between people, between political scientists, and between both of these groups. Within this project, we explore whether different understandings of democracy can explain differences in political orientation, including support for for-right parties.

This research pillar examines the dynamics of democratization and autocratization from a cross-national perspective, shedding light on how and why regimes transition between democracy and autocracy. It addresses critical questions, such as the economic consequences of regime change, or the role of institutions and mass mobilization in shaping regime trajectories. Projects under this pillar explore pathways to democracy, transnational repression by authoritarian states, and the conditions under which regimes experience significant transformations. By analyzing episodes of regime change and their drivers, this work advances our understanding of the global patterns and local mechanisms that define political regime transformations.