Conceptions of democracy among political elites and citizens

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Claudia Landwehr
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 462314147

Over the last decade, concerns about the prospects of liberal democracy have intensified. With the rise of populist parties and candidates, democratic institutions have come to be attacked in the name of democracy itself. Apparently, different social groups and political parties mean different things when they call for more and better democracy. Our project “Conceptions of Democracy among Political Elites and Citizens” set out in 2022 to identify and understand competing normative conceptions of democracy in Germany and the United States. Arguing that any assessment of the state and resilience of democracy needs to be informed about what political actors mean by and expect from democracy, the project was based on the overarching assumption that conceptions of democracy evolve in reciprocal communicative processes between citizens and political elites. In order to trace results of these processes in citizen and elite attitudes as well as political communication, we conducted surveys among German and US citizens and legislators as well as a qualitative content analysis of party manifestos. This application for renewed funding for a further 18 months provides a report on our activities and main findings and identifies remaining research desiderata. Fulfilling these desiderata with a multi-method approach would enable us to provide an even more complete picture of the plurality of different conceptions of democracy in the German and US societies, to map the scope of consensus and dissent about them and to better understand their evolution and implications. More specifically, the project team consisting of the PI, two PhD-students and international cooperation partners will complement each of the project’s three work packages with additional data and analyses: in WP 1 (“Conceptions of democracy in party manifestos and speeches”) we will apply automated text analysis to analyze larger amounts of text and in particular, parliamentary debates over the course of 25 years. In WP 2 (“Conceptions of democracy among citizens”), we will conduct an additional conjoint experiment to further elucidate relationships between normative conceptions of democracy and institutional design preferences. In WP 3 (“Conceptions of democracy among members of parliament”) we will complement our survey of federal and state legislators with a survey of elected representatives in local politics in in Germany and the United States. Moreover, the PhD students employed in the project will use the extension of the funding period to complete their paper-based dissertations.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: USA
• Cooperation Partners: Professorin Melody Crowder-Meyer, Ph.D.; Professor Christopher Ojeda, Ph.D.