Associate Researcher

Verksamhetsbeskrivning
The Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, is one of the leading Political Science departments in the Nordic countries. The vibrant department houses several large research institutes. It houses the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute, the Quality of Government (QoG) Institute, the Media, Opinion, and Democracy project (MOD), and the National Election Studies. The department is also a key actor in the SOM Institute. It has 130 employees, out of which more than 70 are faculty and researchers, and it hosts about 1,400 students. The department offers education at all levels; graduate and postgraduate levels as well as courses. Education is provided for in English and Swedish.


The project "Responsive Democracy: Longitudinal Analyses on the Relationship between Public Opinion and Public Policy" is conducted at the Department of political science, University of Gothenburg. Project leaders are professor Mikael Gilljam and associate professor Mikael Persson. The project aims to evaluate the opinion policy link in Swedish politics during the last 60 years by using survey questions measuring public opinion on policy proposals combined with data on parliamentarians' opinions on policy proposals and, most importantly, with data on whether or not these policy proposals have been implemented. By combining these three sources of information, the project aims to provide an answer to a fundamental question that has been widely neglected in political science research: Have citizens got their preferences fulfilled in implemented policies? The project focuses on the Swedish case from 1956 to 2014. The project revolves around three main questions: Does the Swedish political system manage to realize the will of the people? Do different groups of citizens have unequal democratic influence? Do political representatives function as the link between citizens' opinions and implemented policies?

Arbetsuppgifter
The associate researcher is expected to conduct research and writing articles with the expectation to take the lead of one of the projects sub studies dealing with the role of political representatives in the national parliament in the opinion-policy link.

Utbildning/Erfarenhet
You should have a master degree in political science. Given the short introduction and time of employment, we are looking for you with prior research experience as closely connected as possible to above described project area, e.g. you have on going PhD studies within this area. You should have high competence on public opinion and political representation, and, in particular, the opinion-policy link. You should be able to independently produce scientific articles of high quality. We expect you have very high communication skills and collaboration skills. It's a must to be well familiar with advanced statistical analyses and softwares such as Stata, and LaTeX. Excellent skills in English are a requirement.