Marc Debus

@marcdebus.bsky.social

Professor of Political Science at the University of Mannheim. Co-PI of the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES). Editor-in-chief, Politische Vierteljahresschrift/German Political Science Quarterly.

🚨 New GERDA update: - Large update of mayoral elections (6 new states) - Landrat elections - Wahlkreis (district)-level results (BW & LW) - Local council seats (Gemeinde/Stadt & Kreis) - 2026 elections: BW state, BY & HE local More info below and here: www.german-elections.com

GERDA: German Election Database

Comprehensive dataset of local, state, federal, European, mayoral, Landrat, and county election results in Germany at the municipality and constituency (Wahlkreis) level, plus subnational public opini...

german-elections.com

Which city/district councils have live streams of their meeting and can they serve as a data source for political scientists? Do politicians behave differently when they are on a live stream? Find out in the open access research note by Paul Reimers (in German) doi.org/10.1007/s11615-026-00672-8

Bridging the Gap? Liveübertragungen in Kreistagen und Stadträten als Datengrundlage für die politikwissenschaftliche Forschung - Politische Vierteljahresschrift

The scarcity of meeting minutes makes it difficult to analyze the working methods of local political bodies and the behavior of the actors involved. The increasing availability of livestreams and video recordings of district and city council meetings is helping to remedy this situation. Combined with technical innovations for extracting and processing large (multimodal) datasets, this availability enables new perspectives for local political research. However, for this wealth of data to be widely used, it must be generalizable to the broader population of local government bodies. Accordingly, questions arise regarding whether districts and cities that offer livestreams and recordings differ systematically from those that do not and whether these broadcasts induce shifts in local political debates.To this end, based on systematic research and a survey of district council members, this study describes the legal, political, and financial framework for introducing such recordings and examines the resulting influence on speakers’ behavior. Meeting recordings are available, particularly in large cities, but have so far been scarce in districts with low population density; furthermore, significant differences exist among the federal states. The survey indicates that adjustments to expanded public visibility of meetings are also occurring at the local level. Thus, the external validity of meeting recordings as a data source is not yet established, which should be taken into account during research design and case selection.

doi.org

In this oa contribution to Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Jale Tosun, Nils Schütz, Elisabeth Maikranz and I show that the programmatic gap between churches and Christian Democratic parties in Germany on the issue of migration has widened over the years. rdcu.be/ft6wy /1

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Neuer Aufsatz: in der PVS versuche ich mich an einer Systematisierung der Argumente pro & contra allgemeine Dienstpflicht und diskutiere ein normativ überzeugendes institutionelles Design: doi.org/10.1007/s116...

Die politische Theorie der (deutschen) Dienstpflicht: Begründungen, Einwände und institutionelles Design - Politische Vierteljahresschrift

In recent years, there has been increasing debate in Germany about the introduction of a mandatory national service, and political theory has likewise shown a growing interest in such an institution. Yet while public commentaries lack a systematic and theoretically reflective engagement with the central arguments, research in political theory tends to overlook the military dimension and questions of institutional design. This article addresses these desiderata through a systematic, comparative analysis and weighting of relevant justifications and objections. It argues that the core normative issue is the appropriate relationship between individual negative liberty and competing values—security, civic equality, fairness, trust, and solidarity—as well as the proper balance between market mechanisms and state regulation. In addition, it demonstrates how particular justifications of mandatory national service require specific configurations of institutional design, the non-implementation of which may undermine the normative force of the respective justification.

doi.org

Politische Vierteljahresschrift@pvs-journal.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Was ist die Sicht der Politischen Theorie auf eine mögliche Dienstpflicht (in Deutschland)? @svenaltenburger.bsky.social diskutiert Begründungen, Einwände und Institutionelle Designs in einem neuen open access Artikel. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

🚨 Job alert! 🚨 Predoc position on foreign and security policy attitudes in the Baltic Sea region (3.5 yrs, 65%) Research on democratic resilience and societal responses to security crises. Open to different approaches and interests. Deadline: 30 June 2026 🔗 www.uni-greifswald.de/en/universit...

Wissenschaftliche*r Mitarbeiter*in - Interdisziplinäres Forschungszentrum Ostseeraum (IFZO) 26/ES12

Stellenausschreibung Institut für Politik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft

uni-greifswald.de

Bilgi was a wonderful university… beautiful campus, lively student body, excellent academics. No wonder the Erdogan regime couldn’t stand it. Yet another devastating blow for Turkish academia and society. Solidarity with all faculty, staff and students! ✊

Turkiye shutters liberal Istanbul university seized in criminal probe

Council of Higher Education promised to take measures to ensure Bilgi University students 'suffer no harm'.

aljazeera.com