Prof. Dr. Uwe Wagschal

CV

Born 1966; 1992 M.A. in Political Science and Economics at University of Heidelberg; 1993 Diploma in Economics at University of Heidelberg; 1995 - 1997 Researcher and Lecturer at the Department of Political Science of the University of Heidelberg; 1996 PhD in Political Science at University of Heidelberg; 1997-2001 Lecturer at the University of Bremen (Center for Social Policy Research); 2001-2003 Senior Economist & Political Scientist at Avenir Suisse, Zurich; 2003-2005 Professor for Political Science (Empirical Methods and Policy Analysis) at the Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich; 2005-2009  Professor for Political Science (Comparative Government) at the Ruprecht-Karls University Heidelberg; since 09/2009  Professor for Political Science (Comparative Politics) at the University of Freiburg

Research Interests:

• Comparative Public Policy
• Direct Democracy
• Comparative Politics with focus on Germany
• Conflict Research

Publikationen (Auswahl)

• “Culture and Politics: An Introduction to the Cultural Analysis of Politics “, Oxford: Routledge, 2011 (mit Jan-Erik Lane)
• „Arbeitsbuch Empirische Politikforschung“ (zusammen mit Maximilian Grasl und Sebastian Jäckle), Münster: Lit, 2009.
• „Die kulturellen Dimensionen des globalen Konfliktgeschehens. Kulturelle Konflikte seit 1945“, Reihe Weltregionen im Wandel, Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 2009 (zusammen mit Aurel Croissant, Nicolas Schwank und Christoph Trinn).
• „Konsolidierungsstrategien der Bundesländer“, Gütersloh, 2009 (zusammen mit Georg Wenzelburger, Thomas Metz und Tim Jäkel).
• „Successful Budget Consolidation. An International Comparison“, Gütersloh, 2008 (engl. Übersetzung des Buches „Haushaltskonsolidierung“, zusammen mit Georg Wenzelburger)
• „Haushaltskonsolidierung“, Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag, 2008. (zusammen mit Georg Wenzelburger)
• „Steuerpolitik und Steuerreformen im internationalen Vergleich. Eine Analyse der Ursachen und Blockaden“, Münster: Lit, 2005.
• «Cavalier seul. La Suisse 10 ans après le Non a l’EEE», (Ko-Autoren: Daniele Ganser, Hans Rentsch), Genf: Labor et Fides, 2003. Französische Übersetzung des Buches „Der Alleingang“.
• „Statistik für Politikwissenschaftler“, München und Wien: Oldenbourg, 1999.
• „Staatsverschuldung. Ursachen im internationalen Vergleich“, Opladen: Leske und Budrich, 1996.

FRIAS-Projekt

“Überzeugungsstrategien in politischen Entscheidungs- und Reformprozessen”

Strategies of persuasion are a central factor in the success of political decision-making processes.  These persuasive strategies play a particularly vital role in reform processes, as anti-reform positions enjoy a distinct advantage over reform supporters.  For reforms to be set in motion, a significantly more persuasive performance must be used than for the maintenance of the status quo (“status quo bias”). The communication skills of political actors and the effect of persuasive strategies gain importance in the competitiveness, reform, and political effectiveness of current media society, particularly against the background of the greatest economic crisis since World War II.  In the wake of this crisis it is possible to establish a radical change in communication patterns which extends to the critical analysis and replacement of the hitherto accepted paradigms of economic policy.  The process of persuasion is not to be understood as a non-hierarchical discourse in the vein of Habermas, but rather as bound to the institutional framework, the share of resources, the preferences of the actors and the existing power structures.  Therefore, successful reform can be expected – ceteris paribus – based on a country’s veto player structure which allows for better communicative persuasion of individual and collective veto players.  Therefore, this project focuses not only on the effects and changes of the persuasion strategies, but also on the determinants of success or failure of persuasion strategies.