Zur Merkliste hinzufügen
Zurück zur Auswahl

 

76279-01 - Seminar: Political Elites: Who Are They, How Do They Decide, What Do We Like/Hate About Them? (3 KP)

Semester Herbstsemester 2025
Angebotsmuster unregelmässig
Dozierende Stefanie Bailer (stefanie.bailer@unibas.ch, BeurteilerIn)
Inhalt This seminar introduces students to the study of elite behavior and decision-making, drawing from contemporary research in political science, and partly from psychology, economics, and sociology. The course will pool insights from scholarship on elite behavior in subnational, national, and supranational governments. Throughout the term, we study the following questions: What drives individuals to run for office? What roles do legislators adopt? How do politicians learn about policies? How do psychological biases influence elite behavior? How do representatives build their image of the electorate? How do parties constrain legislators?

We will cover the following research questions:
Who are political elites and what drives politicians’ behavior?
What is political ambition, what drives and hinders political ambition?
How are political candidates selected?
Do politicians make a difference? Descriptive and Substantive Representation
Which biases in their decision-making have politicians?
How do politicians build their image of voters?
How and when do politicians respond to public opinion and how are they informed?
How do voters build their image of politicians?

Lernziele - deepened understanding of the underlying challenges of the policy-making process as well as the pitfalls of representative democracy
- knowledge of research design and methods to analyse the resulting research questions
Literatur - up to date research on politicians provided via ADAM e.g.
- Butler, Chris, and Barbara Vis. 2022. "Heuristics and policy responsiveness: a research agenda." European Political Science 22 (2):202.
- Kertzer, Joshua D, and Jonathan Renshon. 2022. "Experiments and surveys on political elites." Annual Review of Political Science 25:529-550.
- Lucas, Jack, Lior Sheffer, Peter John Loewen, Stefaan Walgrave, Karolin Soontjens, Eran Amsalem, Stefanie Bailer, Nathalie Brack, Christian Breunig, and Pirmin Bundi. 2024. "Politicians’ theories of voting behavior." American Political Science Review:1-18.
- Mutz, Diana C, and Eunji Kim. 2020. "The progress and pitfalls of using survey experiments in political science." In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics.
- Rehmert, Jochen. 2022. "Party elites’ preferences in candidates: evidence from a conjoint experiment." Political Behavior 44 (3):1149-1173.
- Sevenans, Julie, Awenig Marie, Christian Breunig, Stefaan Walgrave, Karolin Soontjens, and Rens Vliegenthart. 2025. "Are poor people poorly heard?" European Journal of Political Research 64 (3):1326-1350.


Bemerkungen All seminars will be graded in the Department of Political Science. Grading scale 6.0 to 1.0, whereupon 4.0 is a pass. The number of participants will be limited. Priority will be given to students of Political Science.

 

Teilnahmevoraussetzungen All seminars will be graded in the Department of Political Science. Grading scale 6.0 to 1.0, whereupon 4.0 is a pass.The number of participants will be limited. Priority will be given to students of Political Science.
Unterrichtssprache Englisch
Einsatz digitaler Medien kein spezifischer Einsatz

 

Intervall Wochentag Zeit Raum
wöchentlich Donnerstag 10.15-11.45 Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004

Einzeltermine

Datum Zeit Raum
Donnerstag 18.09.2025 10.15-11.45 Uhr Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004
Donnerstag 25.09.2025 10.15-11.45 Uhr Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004
Donnerstag 02.10.2025 10.15-11.45 Uhr Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004
Donnerstag 09.10.2025 10.15-11.45 Uhr Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004
Donnerstag 16.10.2025 10.15-11.45 Uhr Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004
Donnerstag 23.10.2025 10.15-11.45 Uhr Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004
Donnerstag 30.10.2025 10.15-11.45 Uhr Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004
Donnerstag 06.11.2025 10.15-11.45 Uhr Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004
Donnerstag 13.11.2025 10.15-11.45 Uhr Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004
Donnerstag 20.11.2025 10.15-11.45 Uhr Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004
Donnerstag 27.11.2025 10.15-11.45 Uhr Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004
Donnerstag 04.12.2025 10.15-11.45 Uhr Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004
Donnerstag 11.12.2025 10.15-11.45 Uhr Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004
Donnerstag 18.12.2025 10.15-11.45 Uhr Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004
Module Modul: Conflicts and Peacebuilding (Master Studiengang: Changing Societies: Migration – Conflicts – Resources )
Modul: Erweiterung Gesellschaftswissenschaften M.A. (Master Studienfach: Politikwissenschaft)
Modul: Regionaler Fokus M.A. (Master Studienfach: Politikwissenschaft)
Modul: Vertiefung Politikwissenschaft M.A. (Master Studienfach: Politikwissenschaft)
Prüfung Lehrveranst.-begleitend
Hinweise zur Prüfung - learning journal contributions
- development of research design
An-/Abmeldung zur Prüfung Anmelden: Belegen; Abmelden: nicht erforderlich
Wiederholungsprüfung keine Wiederholungsprüfung
Skala 1-6 0,5
Belegen bei Nichtbestehen beliebig wiederholbar
Zuständige Fakultät Philosophisch-Historische Fakultät, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch
Anbietende Organisationseinheit Fachbereich Politikwissenschaft

Zurück zur Auswahl