123133 Public Opinion & Political Participation: The Causes of Populism and the Polarization of Public Opinion

Instructors: Sebastian Jungkunz

Event type: Seminar

Org-unit: Politics, Administration & International Relations

Displayed in timetable as: Polit. Meinungsbild.

Hours per week: 3

Credits: 6,0

Location: Campus der Zeppelin Universität

Language of instruction: Englisch

Min. | Max. participants: 10 | 35

Priority scheme: Standard-Priorisierung

Course content:
Building on the Seminar “Political Attitudes & Political Behaviour”, this course deals with special topics of the research on attitudes and opinions. In this semester the focus is on the causes of populism and of the polarization of public opinion in the countries of Europe and North America. Therefore the seminar is concerned with the following questions:

• What is the role of information, predispositions, and value orientations for the formation of opinions?
  
• How well informed and structured are citizens’ political opinions?
  
• With whom do citizens discuss political topics and from whom are they persuaded?
  
• What is "motivated reasoning" and what are the consequences for opinion formation?
  
• How does the greater availability of information from new media and the Internet affect the formation of opinions?
  
• To what degree can the polarization of public opinion and the rising populism be accounted for by motivated reasoning and Internet filter bubbles?
  

Educational objective:
Aim of the course is to provide an understanding of the structure of public opinion and opinion formation with a special focus on political polarisation and populism. It thereby enables participants to nd their way through the literature on various aspects of this research area, to develop their own research questions and to address them in their academic work.

Further information about the exams:

• For each session the participants have to hand in two questions on the assigned literature in advance to the class
  
• Brief report on assigned optional session literature for one session (Referat)
  
• Term paper on self-chosen topic related to the course
  

Mandatory literature:
Achen, Christopher, and Larry Bartels. 2017. Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Glynn, Carol J., Susan Herbst, Mark Lindemann, Garret O’Keefe and Robert Y. Shapiro. 2015. Public Opinion. Boulder: Westview Press.
Hindman, Matthew. 2008. The Myth of Digital Democracy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Lodge, Milton, and Charles S. Taber. 2013. The Rationalizing Voter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mudde, Cas, and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser. 2017. Populism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Prior, Markus. 2007. Post-Broadcast Democracy: How Media Choice Increases Inequality in Political Involvement and Polarizes Elections. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zaller, John. 1992. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.