The Electoral Mobilization of Social Identities

Institut für Sozialwissenschaften
Abteilung SOWI II Prof. Dr. André Baechtiger
Politische Theorie und Empirische Demokratieforschung
The Electoral
Mobilization of Social
Identities: the Case of
Imperial Austria
This paper presents initial work for a larger project
that examines electoral mobilization in the Western
half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (“Austria”)
between 1897 and 1911. The project has three goals:
1) to analyze the emergence, positioning, and success
of political parties in a democratizing multinational state;
2) to determine the degree to which and circumstances
in which ethno-nationalist mobilization dominates over
class-based mobilization; and 3) to determine the
relationship between such appeals to group identities
and concrete policy goals. Drawing on the current
literatures on electoral politics and on class and ethnic
identities, we present the first outline of a novel
attribute-preference model of electoral politics. Next we
introduce the Imperial Austrian political system, its
gradual implementation of universal male suffrage for
legislative elections, its party system, and the existing
electoral and demographic datasets that we will draw
on in later stages of this project. We then present an
original coding scheme for the computer-assisted
qualitative analysis of party manifestos specifically
designed for historical elections in a democratizing,
ethnically divided society. The purpose of this will
eventually be to assess the identity and issue claims
made by all parties that won seats in the 1897, 1901,
1907, and 1911 Reichsrat elections. Finally, we present
the results of a first test coding of several Czech and
German historical party manifestos
Montag, 20. Juni 2016,
17:30 - 19:00 Uhr; M 2.31
Alle sind herzlich eingeladen!
Prof. Dr. Christina
Isabel Zuber
Fachbereich Politik- und
Verwaltungswissenschaft
an der Universität Konstanz

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