ABOUT
Simon T. Franzmann is a full professor (W3) of democratic studies with a focus on political parties and political culture at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. Previously, he was Professor of Political Science with a focus on German politics at the University of Siegen. He received his doctorate in political science from the University of Cologne and habilitated at the HHU Düsseldorf in 2017. His research focuses on empirical studies of opposition, party systems, populism, comparative democracy studies and theories of party competition. His work has been published in journals such as Electoral Studies, Party Politics, West European Politics and the Journal of Theoretical Politics, among others. Since 2011, he has been a member of the steering committee of the Manifesto Project. Since November 2022, he has been co-director of the Manifesto Project in cooperation with the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB).
Main areas of research and teaching: theory and empirics of party competition, opposition, populism and extremism, research logic and content analysis.
EMPLOYMENT
Since 04/2021 Professor of Democracy Studies (with a specialisation on Political Parties and Political Culture), Georg-August Universität Göttingen
02/2020 -03/2021 Full Professor in Political Science (with a special focus on Political Systems and German Politics), Universität Siegen
10/2019-02/2020 Interim Professor in Political Science, Universität Siegen
01/2019-09/2019 Lecturer in Political Science (tenured), (Studienrat im Hochschuldienst), Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf
04/2018-12/2018 Assistant Professor (not tenured; “Akademischer Rat auf Zeit”) in Comparative Politics and Methods, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf
10/2017-03/2018 Interim Professor in Comparative Politics, LMU Munich, Faculty of Social Sciences
10/2012-09/2017 Assistant Professor (not tenured; “Akademischer Rat auf Zeit”) in Comparative Politics and Methods, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf
10/2011-09/2012 Interim Professor in Comparative Politics, University of Greifswald
10/2010-09/2012 Research Assistant and Lecturer, Chair for European and German Politics, University of Potsdam (on leave during the stay in Greifswald)
04/2010-10/2010 Research Assistant and Lecturer in Political Sociology, GESIS Data Archive, Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, University of Cologne
07/2009-03/2010 Researcher, Project of the German Research Foundation (DFG) on “The Dynamics of Interparty Competition. Part II”, Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, University of Cologne
04/2004-06/2009 Research Assistant and Lecturer, Chair for Comparative Politics, Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, University of Cologne
EDUCATION
10/2017 Dr. phil. habil. (Habilitation in Political Science), Faculty for Philosophy, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf
09/2009 Dr. rer.pol (PhD in Political Science), Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, University of Cologne
12/2003 Master in Economics and Political Science (“Volkswirtschaftslehre sozialwissenschaftlicher Richtung, Diplom Volkswirt), Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, University of Cologne)
MOST IMPORTANT PUBLICATIONS
2020 (mit Heiko Giebler und Thomas Poguntke) It’s no longer the economy, stupid! Issue yield at the 2017 German federal election, West European Politics,
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01402382.2019.1655963
2018 (mit Johannes Schmitt) A Polarizing Dynamic by Center Cabinets? The Mechanism of Limited Contestation. Zeitschrift für Historische Sozialforschung – Historical Social Research 43(1): S. 168-209.
2016 Calling the Ghost of Populism: The AfD’s strategic and tactical agendas until the EP election 2014, German Politics 25 (4): S. 457-479.
2016 (mit Pascal Siegers und Mira Hassan) The Religious and Spiritual Underpinnings of Party Choice in Christian Europe. Electoral Studies 44: S. 203-213.
2015 Towards a real comparison of left-right indices: A comment on Jahn. Party Politics 21 (5): S. 821-828.
2014 Die Wahlprogrammatik der AfD in vergleichender Perspektive.
Mitteilungen des Instituts für Parteienrecht und Parteienforschung 22: S. 115-124.
2013 (mit Marius R. Busemeyer und Julian L. Garritzmann) Who owns education? Cleavage structures in the partisan competition over educational expansion. West European Politics 36 (3): S. 521-546.
2011 (mit Dennis C. Spies) A Two-Dimensional Approach on the Political Opportunity Structure of Extreme Right Parties in Western Europe, West European Politics, 34 (5): S. 1044-1069.
2011 Competition, Contest, and Cooperation. The Analytical Framework of the Issue-Market. Journal of Theoretical Politics, 23 (3): S. 317-343.
2006 (mit André Kaiser) Locating Political Parties in Policy Space. A Reanalysis of Party Manifesto Data. Party Politics, 12 (2): S. 163-188.
