The PhDs are funded through a Starting Grant of the European Research Council (ERC-STATORG) awarded to Principal Investigator (PI) Prof. Nicole Bolleyer. The five-year, interdisciplinary project addresses the following questions: Which regulatory frameworks are in place in 19 long-lived democracies to steer the behaviour of membership-based, voluntary organizations (e.g. parties, NGOs, interest groups, charities) (phase 1)? How do distinct regulatory frameworks affect the operation, evolution and survival of these voluntary organizations (phase 2)?
The two studentships are embedded in phase 2 of STATORG which studies the long-term evolution of parties, interest groups and charities formed post 1980 in a small number of long-lived democracies – qualitatively and quantitatively. The democracies will be characterized by different regulatory frameworks (e.g. funding regimes, allocation of tax benefits, regulation of legal recognition, election law, lobby regulation) to assess how different organizations adapt to their respective environment (e.g. in terms of organizational change, strategic adaptation).
The two PhD students can have backgrounds in various social science disciplines (e.g. politics, sociology, economics). They will contribute a) to a comparative study of developmental patterns of environmental groups, political parties and social policy organizations (through in-depth interviews and qualitative document analysis) and b) to a quantitative comparative analysis (using event history/survival analysis) on the features that affect organizations’ likelihood to survive. Next to the opportunity to write a PhD in the context of an ambitious, interdisciplinary project, there will be opportunities for all team members to co-author conference papers and academic publications, i.e. these posts will provide an excellent foundation for an academic career.
More information on this position can be found on this website