Einführung in die vergleichende Politikwissenschaft (VL und Übungen)

Course: The Role of Values in Politics

Course description

In this course, we will combine insights from political psychology and political communication to explore the concept political values as well as the drivers and consequences of voters’ and politicians’ (appeal to) values. Specifically, we will examine how to define and measure political values, the psychological and social influences on value formation, and the role values play in contemporary politics, especially in relation to the phenomenon “political moralization”. We will, for instance, explore the complex relationship between value appeals and political polarization, whether certain values universally map onto left and right ideologies, and whether context matters for how political values are interpreted and expressed.

Examples of literature used in the course

• Halman, Loek, ' Political Values', in Russell J. Dalton, and Hans‐Dieter Klingemann (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior (2007)
• Blumenau and Lauderdale 2022: The variable persuasiveness of political rhetoric
• Jung 2020: The Mobilizing Effect of Parties' Moral Rhetoric
• Schwartz, S. H., Caprara, G. V., & Vecchione, M. (2010). Basic personal values, core political values, and voting: A longitudinal analysis. Political psychology, 31(3).