Registration does not begin until 02.10.2026 at 08:00. It ends on 12.10.2026 at 23:59.

This class requires regular attendance in-person due to the format of the assignments. Online participation or non-regular attendance is not possible.

In this course, students conduct a research project the field of democracy studies (building on the theories and concepts learned in the Module "Institutions of Democracy"). After some input sessions about research designs with a particular focus on democracy research, students identify a relevant research question which they will try to answer in the research project. The research project includes the elaboration and concretization of the research question and the theoretical framework, the elaboration of a research design, the collection of data, their processing, as well as the actual data analysis. The lecturer provides input sessions on comparative methods and accompanies the students' individual research projects. In addition, the participants give each other feedback on their research projects. The students present the project idea at the beginning and their empirical results at the end of the semester. Eventually, they report on their research project in form of a research paper.

The students conduct their own research project in the field of democracy studies in which they formulate a theoretical argument for an empirical puzzle in democracy studies, develop a suitable research design, collect data, and test their theoretical argument empirically.

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