Special issue proposal: Methodological Advances for the Study of German Politics
We invite abstract submissions for a special issue of the Politische Vierteljahresschrift / German Political Science Quarterly (PVS/GPSQ) on Methodological Advances for the Study of German Politics, guest edited by Denis Cohen (University of Mannheim), Theresa Gessler (University of Hamburg), and Lukas Rudolph (University of Konstanz).
German politics has undergone substantial transformation over the past decades, including rising electoral volatility, increasing party system fragmentation, changing modes of political communication, growing regional political divides, and accelerating short-term fluctuations in political preferences and electoral behavior. At the same time, political methodology has evolved rapidly. Advances in statistical modeling, survey methodology, and computational methods have substantially expanded the empirical toolkit available to political scientists. Together, these developments create new opportunities to study increasingly complex political processes with greater temporal, spatial, and substantive precision.
This special issue brings together contributions that demonstrate how recent methodological advances generate new substantive insights. We welcome contributions that introduce, adapt, or critically evaluate methodological approaches and demonstrate their value through applications to German politics.
The special issue is organized around three broad thematic clusters:
- Measurement and modeling of political preferences and party competition, including contributions on electoral behavior, voter realignment, preference measurement via statistical modeling and causal inference.
- Survey methodology and public opinion research, including contributions on questionnaire design, measurement validity, sampling, panel studies, and the analysis of political attitudes and public opinion.
Computational and digital approaches to political communication, including computational social science, text-as-data, machine learning, large language models, digital trace data, and social media.
The special issue has been accepted by the PVS editorial board and currently comprises eight invited contributions. In line with the journal's semi-open special issue format, we now invite abstract submissions for up to two additional contributions that complement the existing collection.
If you wish to be included in a potential special issue, please fill out the information on the next page.
Your data will be used to contact you to inform you about the success of your submission for inclusion in the special issue proposal and may be forwarded to the Editors of the Politische Vierteljahresschrift / German Political Science Quarterly.