Political harassment and violence against politicians have become highly visible challenges for democratic societies. Threats, insults, stalking, property damage, physical attacks, and technology-facilitated abuse can shape who is willing and able to participate in politics, how elected representatives perform their roles, and whose voices remain present in public debate. Yet the phenomenon is conceptually and empirically difficult to study. Boundaries between harsh criticism, harassment, intimidation, and political violence are contested; exposure and reporting vary across groups and contexts; and institutional responses are often fragmented, poorly documented or poorly implemented.
This seminar approaches these problems simultaneously as a substantive field of political science and as a research-practice laboratory. Students will examine who is affected by harassment and violence, how these experiences are interpreted and framed in political discourse, and how political institutions and parties attempt to prevent or address them. Across the term, substantive questions are paired with methodological decisions: how to define and operationalize a contested concept; how to select cases; how to analyse survey data from political elites; and how to construct and apply a qualitative coding frame.
- Dozent/in: Meryem Kocabas
- Dozent/in: Corinna Kröber