Marie Curie Initial Training Network in Electoral Democracy (ELECDEM)

Project Directors Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Hermann Schmitt, Dr. Andreas M. Wüst Project Staff Federico Vegetti, Constanza Sanhueza Petrarca EU (Marie Curie)-funded 2009 – 2014

Research question/goal:

Elections are a fundamental, if not always effective, mechanism of democratic accountability and representation. The comparative study of electoral democracies has been the motivating principle of ELECDEM - a training network for early stage and experienced researchers. We have taken a comprehensive approach to the study of electoral democracy using cross-nationally comparative databases, content analysis and experiments to examine the impact of globalisation, technological developments in communication and institutional change on representation and accountability.

The ITN ELECDEM brought together 11 expert teams from 9 European countries to provide substantive and methodological training in elections research to a cohort of researchers. These researchers joined a team that brought together world leading scholars in the cross-national study of elections on one hand, and industry partners like TNS Opinion and Kieskompas on the other hand to provide training and research opportunities. The research projects of the researchers drew on cross-national election studies such as the European Election Study and the CSES. 

It held its final conference to disseminate the research findings from the 18 project work packages and also invited researchers to present papers in the area of elections, political behaviour and political communication (copies of the papers presented and further information are available at www.elecdem.eu/events/title_84741_en.html ). 

At the Mannheim end of the project, two PhD students – Federico Vegetti and Constanza Sanhueza Petrarca – were participating in the Mannheim Graduate School as part of the ELECDEM Initial Training Network. In 2013, Federico finished his dissertation and passed his viva defence with an overall first grade “summa cum laude”. The second Mannheim student, Constanza Sanhueza, is still working on her dissertation and is expected to finish in due course.

 

Publications

Presentations

  • Popa, Sebastian Adrian (2012): ELECDEM Final Conference. [What Helps Citizens to Have Consistent Attitudes? A Cross Country Analysis of the Individual and Contextual Determinants of Attitude Constraint., Florence, 28/06/2012 - 30/06/2012]. More
  • Vegetti, Federico (2012): Party polarization and the balance between ideology and evaluation in Europe. [EPOP Conference, Oxford, 07/09/2012 - 09/09/2012]. More
  • Vegetti, Federico (2012): Party polarization and the balance between ideology and competence in Europe. [EPSA General Conference, Berlin, 21/06/2012 - 23/06/2012]. More
  • Vegetti, Federico (2012): Party polarization and the balance between ideology and competence in Europe. [ELECDEM Final Conference - Advancing Electoral Research, Florence, 28/06/2012 - 30/06/2012]. More
  • Sanhueza Petrarca, Constanza (2012): Do MPs represent their immigrant-origin constituents? Parliamentary questioning in the United Kingdom, Germany and France. [APSA Annual Meeting, New Orleans, 30/08/2012 - 02/09/2012]. More
  • Popa, Sebastian Adrian (2012): What Helps Citizens to Have Consistent Attitudes? A Cross Country Analysis of the Individual and Contextual Determinants of Attitude Constraint.. [Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, New Orleans, Lo, 30/08/2012 - 02/09/2012]. More
  • Vegetti, Federico (2011): When it's hard to change. Party system polarization and vote switching. [TEV 1st Scientific Conference: The State of the Art in Comparative Electoral Research, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, 01/12/2011 - 03/12/2011]. More
  • Vegetti, Federico (2011): Polarization at the meso-level. The effect of party characteristics on the quality of party support.. [Political Science Departmental Doctoral Seminar, Central European University, Budapest, 17/02/2011 - 17/02/2011]. More
  • Sanhueza Petrarca, Constanza (2011): Parliamentary Questions on Immigration: Immigrant MPs, Parties and Immigrant Constituencies in France. [6th ECPR General Conference, Reykjavik, 25/08/2011 - 27/08/2011]. More
  • Sanhueza Petrarca, Constanza (2011): Immigrants’ representation, A party-centred analytical model for comparative analysis. [Legipar Final Conference, Bordeaux, 30/11/2011 - 02/12/2011]. More
  • Schmitt, Hermann (2011): Different worlds in East and West. [EPOP 2011 Conference, Exeter, 09/09/2011 - 11/09/2011]. More
  • Sanhueza Petrarca, Constanza (2010): Political Integration of Immigrants in Britain and France: Membership Models and Political Systems. [ECPR Graduate Conference, Dublin, 30/08/2010 - 01/09/2010]. More
  • Vegetti, Federico (2010): A vicious cycle: Ideological polarisation and centrifugal drives . [ECPR Graduate Conference, Dublin, 30/08/2010 - 01/09/2010]. More