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Instructors: Prof. Dr. Martin Elff
Event type:
Seminar
Org-unit: Politics, Administration & International Relations
Displayed in timetable as:
Political Beh. & Pub
Hours per week:
3
Credits:
6,0
Location:
Campus der Zeppelin Universität
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
5 | 22
Priority scheme: Standard-Priorisierung
Course content:
In the social sciences, the term public opinion refers to the distribution of
attitudes and opinions towards political topics, in particular towards
contentious issues - e.g. whether migration should be facilitated or reduced,
whether or not the reliance of the energy industry on atomic energy and coal
should be ended, wether one's own country should leave the EU or whether
European Integration should be intensified etc. A democratically elected
government cannot ignore the public opinion about such topics, without losing
its legitimacy or without risking to lose the next election. But how do citizens
arrive at their opinions? Are they sufficiently informed in order recognise
important facts and relations about facts and to be guided by them? It is one of
the best confirmed result of social science research on the formations of
attitudes and opinions that few people satisfy the ideal of a "rational" citizen
who dispassionatly weighs values and facts. It is rather quite common that citizens
either do not have any (stable) opinion on many political topics or do have
opinions that are countrary to established facts and from which they cannot be
dissuaded by corrective information. So what determines the formation of
citizens' political opinions?
This course discusses relevant theoretical approaches, empirical findings, and
methodological foundations of social science research on public opinion and
applies them to these questions.
The following topics are covered in particular:
- The concept of public opinion
- The historic development of opinion research and its methodological
foundations
- The psychological base of opinion formation
- Social processes and opinion formation
- Political knowledge and public opinion
- Social networks, filter bubbles, and echo chambers
- Misinformation and motivated reasoning
- Current topics of public opinion research, e.g.
- Attitudes towards migration and xenophobia
- Skepticism towards science and towards climate change
Educational objective:
This seminar provides participants with an understanding of the fundamentals of
social science research on public opinion and an insight into current research
literature. They gain the ability to develop their own research questions
and to address them in their own further studies, e.g. in a Ostrom thesis or a
master thesis.
Further information about the exams:
Course assessment is based on an oral presentation and a term paper.
Mandatory literature:
Glynn, Carol et al. 2018. Public Opinion. 3rd edition, New York and London:
Routledge.
Zaller, John R. 1992. The Nature and Origin of Mass Opinion. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
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