Over the last decade, concerns about the prospects of liberal democracy have intensified. With the rise of populist parties and candidates, democratic institutions have come to be attacked in the name of democracy itself. Apparently, different social groups and political parties mean different things when they call for more and better democracy. Our project “Conceptions of Democracy among Political Elites and Citizens” set out in 2022 to identify and understand competing normative conceptions of democracy in Germany and the United States. Arguing that any assessment of the state and resilience of democracy needs to be informed about what political actors mean by and expect from democracy, the project was based on the overarching assumption that conceptions of democracy evolve in reciprocal communicative processes between citizens and political elites. In order to trace results of these processes in citizen and elite attitudes as well as political communication, we conducted surveys among German and US citizens and legislators as well as a qualitative content analysis of party manifestos. In the second funding period, we will complement the project’s work packages with additional data and analyses: First, we will apply automated text analysis to analyze larger amounts of text and in particular, parliamentary debates over the course of 25 years. Second, we will conduct an additional conjoint experiment to further elucidate relationships between normative conceptions of democracy and institutional design preferences. Third, we will complement our survey of federal and state legislators with a survey of elected representatives in local politics in Germany and the United States.

Landwehr, Claudia; Häfner, Leonard; Stallbaum, Lea; Crowder-Meyer, Melody (31.03.2026): Ergebnisbericht zur American Local Legislator Survey

Crowder-Meyer, Melody; Häfner, Leonard; Landwehr, Claudia; Stallbaum, Lea (2026): People-centred or Elite-centred Democrats? Legislators’ Process Preferences in the United States and Germany, Government and Opposition 61(e9), 1–22. DOI: 10.1017/gov.2026.10033.

Landwehr, Claudia; Häfner, Leonard; Stallbaum, Lea (01.10.2025): Ergebnisbericht zur Befragung „Wie denken deutsche Kommunalpolitiker über die Demokratie?”

Häfner, Leonard (2025): Conceptions of Democracy and Styles of Representation Among Legislators in the United States and Germany, Representation 61(4), 665-680. DOI: 10.1080/00344893.2025.2514516.

Landwehr, Claudia; Ojeda, Christopher; Stallbaum, Lea (2025): Institutional Design Preferences Among German and US Citizens: Results from a Factorial Survey Experiment. Political Studies, online first. DOI: 10.1177/00323217241309965 .

Landwehr, Claudia; Crowder-Meyer, Melody; Häfner, Leonard; Stallbaum, Lea; Weingärtner, Paul (2024): American Legislator Survey 2023 (Datensatz). https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/3H1YYH , Harvard Dataverse.

Häfner, Leonard; Landwehr, Claudia; Stallbaum, Lea (2023): German Legislators‘ Conceptions of Democracy and Process Preferences: Results from a New Survey. German Politics 34(2), 277-302. DOI: 10.1080/09644008.2023.2279183 . (Replikationsmaterialien auf Anfrage erhältlich)

Landwehr, Claudia; Häfner, Leonard; Stallbaum, Lea (2023): German Legislator Survey 2022 (Datensatz). https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/GUVA5P , Harvard Dataverse.

Landwehr, Claudia; Häfner, Leonard; Stallbaum, Lea; Crowder-Meyer, Melody (25.09.2023): Ergebnisbericht zur American State Legislator Survey

Landwehr, Claudia; Häfner, Leonard; Stallbaum, Lea (20.10.2022):  Ergebnisbericht zur Befragung „Wie denken Abgeordnete in deutschen Parlamenten über die Demokratie?”

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Workshop „Shades of Democracy“ in Mainz

• Leonard Häfner: „How procedural preferences of local politicians in Germany compare to political elites and ordinary citizens“
• Lea Stallbaum: „European Citizens‘ Conceptions of Democracy: The Explanatory Power of Non-Democratic Political Socialization“
• Claudia Landwehr: „Citizen and Elite Conceptions of Democracy and Process Preferences – An Overview of Project Results“

• Lea Stallbaum: „Democratic Institutional Design: A Citizen Perspective“ (Ko-Autor*innen: Claudia Landwehr, Christopher Ojeda); Vortrag am 06.11.2025 im Workshop „A Comparison of Democratic Preferences of Citizens and Legislators“ am Centre Émile Durkheim der Sciences Po Bordeaux
• Claudia Landwehr & Lea Stallbaum: „Democratic Institutional Design: A Citizen Perspective“ (Ko-Autor: Christopher Ojeda); Vortrag am 09.10.2025 bei der Jahrestagung des AK Analytische Politische Theorie in Mainz
• Lea Stallbaum: „A Democratic Pick and Mix: Mapping Conceptions of Democracy Among German Citizens“ (Ko-Autoren: Leonard Häfner, Jonas Wenker); Vortrag am 24.06.2025 im Workshop „Evolution of Democratic Ideas“ am Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB)
• Claudia Landwehr: „Institutional Design Preferences Among German and US Citizens: Results from a Factorial Survey Experiment“ (Ko-Autor*innen: Christopher Ojeda, Lea Stallbaum); Vortrag am Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB)

ECPR General Conference in Thessaloniki

• Claudia Landwehr: „Democratic Institutions for Egalitarian Deliberative Responsiveness“ (Ko-Autor: Armin Schäfer); Vortrag am 27.09.2025 im Panel „Deliberative Democracy with New Technologies: Epistemic Perspectives“
• Armin Schäfer: „What Kind of Democracy Do Citizens Want?“ (Ko-Autorin: Claudia Landwehr); Vortrag am 26.09.2025 im Panel „Rethinking Democracy: Contestation, Communication, and Alternative Visions“

• Claudia Landwehr, Leonard Häfner und Lea Stallbaum: „Demokratiekonzeptionen von Bürger*innen und politischen Eliten in Deutschland und den USA“; Vortrag am 16.12.2024 am Trierer Institut für Demokratie- und Parteienforschung (TIDuP) der Universität Trier

29. DVPW-Kongress 2024 in Göttingen

• Leonard Häfner: „People-centred or elite-centred democrats? Legislators’ process preferences in the United States and Germany“ (Ko-Autor*Innen: Melody Crowder-Meyer, Claudia Landwehr, Lea Stallbaum); Vortrag am 26.09.2024 im Panel „Eliten in Krisenzeiten (2): Herkunft und Repräsentation“
• Lea Stallbaum: „Institutional Design Preferences Among German and US Citizens: Results from a Factorial Survey Experiment“ (Ko-Autor*innen: Claudia Landwehr, Christopher Ojeda); Vortrag am 26.09.2024 im Panel „Einstellungen zur repräsentativen Demokratie: Ursachen und Folgen von unterschiedlichen Demokratievorstellungen“
• Jonas Wenker: „A Democratic Pick and Mix: Mapping Conceptions of Democracy Among German Citizens“ (Ko-Autor*innen: Leonard Häfner, Lea Stallbaum); Vortrag am 25.09.2024 im Panel „Conceptions of democracy among citizens and political elites – comparative perspectives“

2024 APSA Annual Meeting and Exhibition in Philadelphia, Panel „Conceptions of Democracy among German and American Citizens and Political Elites“

• Armin Schäfer: „Who Wants Descriptive Representation, and Why?“ (Ko-Autorin: Claudia Landwehr); Vortrag am 06.09.2024
• Leonard Häfner: „Conceptions of Democracy and Styles of Representation“; Vortrag am 06.09.2024
• Melody Crowder-Meyer: „People-centred or elite-centred democrats? Legislators’ process preferences in the United States and Germany“ (Ko-Autor*innen: Claudia Landwehr, Leonard Häfner, Lea Stallbaum); Vortrag am 06.09.2024
• Lea Stallbaum: „Institutional Design Preferences Among German and US Citizens: Results from a Factorial Survey Experiment“ (Ko-Autor*innen: Claudia Landwehr, Christopher Ojeda); Vortrag am 06.09.2024
• Jonas Wenker: „A Democratic Pick and Mix: Mapping Conceptions of Democracy Among German Citizens“ (Ko-Autor*innen: Leonard Häfner, Lea Stallbaum); Vortrag am 06.09.2024

Workshop „Citizen Perspectives on Democracy“ in Mainz

• Lea Stallbaum: „Institutional Design Preferences Among German and US citizens: Results from a Factorial Survey“ (Ko-Autor*innen: Claudia Landwehr, Christopher Ojeda); Vortrag am 21.03.2024
• Melody Crowder-Meyer: „People-centred or institutional democrats? A study of German and US legislators‘ understandings of democracy“ (Ko-Autor*innen: Claudia Landwehr, Leonard Häfner, Lea Stallbaum); Vortrag am 21.03.2024
• Jonas Wenker: „Mapping Conceptions of Democracy among German Citizens“ (Ko-Autor*innen: Leonard Häfner, Lea Stallbaum); Vortrag am 21.03.2024

• Claudia Landwehr: „Conceptions of Democracy in Germany and the United States“; Vortrag am 30.11.2023 im Rahmen der Obama Lecture des Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies in Mainz
• Claudia Landwehr und Lea Stallbaum: „Preferences over Democratic Institutional Design among German and US Citizens“; Vortrag am 30.10.2023 im Mainzer Kolloquium Methoden und Sozialstruktur
• Claudia Landwehr, Leonard Häfner und Lea Stallbaum: „Citizens’ Conceptions of Democracy and Process Preferences: Results from a Vignette Study“; Vortrag am 20.04.2023 im Demokratie-Kolloquium des MZeDf

ECPR General Conference in Prag, Section „Debating Democracy in/and Europe“

• Armin Schäfer: „Who is Afraid of Descriptive Representation? Politicians and Citizens’ Concepts of Representation“; Vortrag am 06.09.2023
• Leonard Häfner: „Conceptions of Democracy and Styles of Representation“; Vortrag am 06.09.2023

Workshop „Democratic Citizens and Political Elites“ in Mainz

• Armin Schäfer: „Who Is Afraid of Descriptive Representation?“; Vortrag am 09.03.2023
• Lea Stallbaum: „Conceptions of Democracy and Process Preferences in Party Manifestos: A Comparative Analysis“; Vortrag am 09.03.2023
• Leonard Häfner: „German Legislators’ Conceptions of Democracy and Process Preferences: Results from a New Survey“; Vortrag am 09.03.2023

• Leonard Häfner und Lea Stallbaum: Conceptions of Democracy among German state MPs; Vortrag am 14.07.2022 beim Workshop „Procedural Consensus and Dissent“ in Mainz