Political Science

MULTI-LEVEL POLITICS IN EUROPE

Program in Political Science 2010-2013

Politics in contemporary Europe is to an increasing extent taking place at the intersection of domestic and supranational levels of governance. The nation state is still the most important locus of decision-making in core areas of modern statehood. At the same time, however, domestic politics increasingly interacts with political processes at the supranational level as more and more policy decisions are made within the framework of the European Union. But European Union politics is not decoupled from politics within the nation state. Domestic political actors are intensively involved in supranational decision-making, and the process of European integration in turn impacts domestic politics.

The Department of Political Science offers a three-year postgraduate program aiming to explore the logic of political contestation in this setting of increasingly interwoven levels of governance. The program reaches out to excellent students who hold a master’s degree in political science or similar disciplines and are planning to acquire a doctoral degree in political science.

The Program at a Glance

The postgraduate program in political science offers a wide range of advantages:

• A well-established system of internal coaching to support students in developing and completing their PhD projects;
• Excellent research facilities, including office space, modern IT equipment, library services, and academic support;
• Unique opportunities to meet and discuss with internationally-renowned visiting professors;
• Access to the full range of lectures and workshops taking place at the IHS.

Individual PhD Projects

Students are required to develop and carry out a PhD project on an issue related to the theme of the program. In addition to proposals addressing the multi-level nature of political contestation in contemporary Europe, we also accept comparative projects focusing on politics at either the EU or the domestic levels alone. Work on these projects is embedded in an intensive system of coaching within the Department. In conjunction with enrolment in our postgraduate program, students are expected to register for a doctorate at an external university. Building on a long tradition of collaboration, the doctoral program of the University of Vienna’s Faculty of Social Sciences accredits the seminars and lectures held at the Institute for Advanced Studies. By the end of the three-year program, students should have completed, or be near to completing, a PhD thesis to be submitted to their university.

Teaching Program

Besides pursuing their individual PhD projects, students are expected to participate in seminars held by the teaching staff of the Department and by international visiting professors. These seminars aim to provide thorough training in quantitative and qualitative methods and research design, central theories and approaches of comparative politics, and key issues of multi-level politics in contemporary Europe.

The structure of the teaching program is geared towards supporting students in their individual PhD projects.

First Year

In the first year, the teaching program focuses on quantitative and qualitative methods, issues of research design and key theories of comparative politics. Participating in these seminars is intended to help students accomplish the task of developing a detailed outline of their PhD projects. At the end of the first year, these outlines are submitted as first-year papers. The assessment of these first-year papers forms the basis of the faculty’s decision to promote students to the second year.

Second Year

The teaching program in the second year centers on seminars dealing with key aspects of multi-level politics in Europe. As all students work on projects related to this theme, participating in these seminars is directly relevant for pursuing their individual PhD projects. During the second year, students are expected to carry out the empirical work required for their PhD projects. By the end of the second year, they need to document the progress of their projects in a second-year paper that includes an updated version of their research design and first empirical results. The assessment of these second-year papers again forms the basis of the faculty’s decision to promote students to the third and final year.

Third Year

The focus of the third year of the program is on completing the individual PhD projects. This is accompanied by seminars on further aspects of multi-level politics in Europe. Compared to the second year, these seminars center less on classical teaching than on individual coaching, allowing students to present their results and discuss them with the visiting professors. By the end of the third year, students submit a final paper which summarizes the main theoretical and empirical results of their PhD projects. Ideally, the final papers are made up of parts of the introduction, the theoretical chapter and the conclusions of a completed PhD thesis that is ready to be submitted to an external university.

Career Prospects

Graduates of the program have excellent career prospects. Over the last ten years roughly one half of all IHS students have joined the university system, one quarter have gone into public administration and another quarter into the private sector. The Department of Political Science has a particularly strong focus on training future academics. Most of our 2007 graduates had completed their dissertation theses before or within a few months of leaving the department, and all found very good jobs, mainly in academia. We are proud of our long-standing tradition of high quality education. The large number of prominent political scientists in Austria who have received their post-graduate training from the IHS Department of Political Science is a testimony to this.