Welcome

… to my website.

I am assistant professor for political science research methods at Chemnitz University of Technology, where I lead an Emmy Noether Research Group on “Polarization through and in referendums: mapping polarization within and beyond the party system.” Previously, I was a research fellow at the Chair for Political Sociology of Germany at Freie Universität Berlin and in the summer term of 2020, I served as interim professor at the Center for Data and Methods at Universität Konstanz, assuming the duties in teaching of the Professorship for Survey Research. I hold a PhD in Governance from the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, an MSc in Political Science and Political Economy from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a BA in Political Science from Freie Universität Berlin.

My areas of research are in political behavior and applied quantitative methods. I am interested in rightwing populism, polarisation, direct democracy, turnout, youths in politics, election forecasting, economic voting, and electoral studies more broadly. My work has been published in the American Political Science Review, Political Science Research and Methods, Political Studies, Politische Vierteljahresschrift, and West European Politics among others.

I am also a founding member and former board member of CorrelAid, a data science non-profit. From 2012 to 2013 I worked as parliamentary aide in the German Bundestag. I occasionally tweet about political science, citizen participation, data analysis and sometimes football using the handle @a_leininger.

News

2024-02-23 New publication: “Coming of voting age. Evidence from a natural experiment on the effects of electoral eligibility” in Electoral Studies

2023-07-15 New publication: “Strategic Alignment in Times of Crisis: Voting at the Dawn of a Global Pandemic” (joint work with Max Schaub) in Political Behavior

2023-02-01 New project commences: The research project “Legacies of democratic transition Explaining the success of the populist radical right in eastern Germany” is funded by the Fritz-Thyssen-Foundation and runs until January 2025.

2023-01-23 New publication: “Mehr Wählen wagen? Ungleichheiten beim ‘Wählen ab 16’ und ihre Folgen” (jointly with Thorsten Faas) in OBS-Arbeitspapier 56. Frankfurt am Main: Otto Brenner Stiftung. Reported in Deutschlandfunk, Zeit Online, Süddeutsche Zeitung, among others.

2023-01-20 New publication: “Cleavage politics, polarisation, and participation in Western Europe” (with Endre Borbáth and Swen Hutter, both FU Berlin and Berlin Social Science Center (WZB)) in West European PoliticsIntroduction for the Special Issue “Under Pressure: Polarisation and Participation in Western Europe”

Contact

Chemnitz University of Technology
Assistant Professorship Political Science Research Methods
09126 Chemnitz, Germany
arndt.leininger@phil.tu-chemnitz.de