Dr Wolfgang Rudig

Personal statement

My research agenda focuses on the empirical study of political behaviour in a cross-national context.  A major element of my recent research activities is the study of election candidates.  The Representative Audit of Britain project involves surveys of candidates who stood in the 2015, 2017 and 2019 UK General Elections. This is a joint project with Professor Rosie Campbell (King's College London) and Professor Jennifer van Heerde-Hudson (University College London), funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The project is part of an international network, the Comparative Candidates Survey (CCS) - www.comparativecandidates.org. 

A second ESRC-funded project, Out of Touch and Out of Time? A Cross-Temporal and Cross-Level Analysis of the Social and Ideological Distance between UK Voters and Political Elite, seeks to combine all candidate survey data collected in the UK since the 1990s and analyse changes over time. The research group includes Professor Rosie Campbell (KCL), Professor Jennifer van Heerde-Hudson (UCL), Dr Javier Sajuria (Queen Mary University of London), Dr Siim Trumm (University of Nottingham), Dr Sofia Collignon (Royal Holloway University of London) and Dr Neil Matthews (University of Bristol). 

My second major research interest is the study of political protest. Much of my recent work in this area has focused on developments in Greece, in particular the study of anti-austerity protest and its electoral consequences conducted jointly with Professor Georgios Karyotis (University of Glasgow) - www.austeritypolitics.net. Further work on other protest movements in Greece, France and other countries is in preparation.

My third major research area concerns the study of party members, in particular members of green parties.  Following a series of membership surveys conduced since the early 1990s, a further European Green Party Membership (EGPM) survey is planned for 2021/2022.

Finally, I have recently become involved in empirical research on attitudes and behaviour relating to the Covid-19 pandemic as part of the Pandemic Politics research group, www.pandemicpolitics.net, which involves Professor John Connolly (University of the West of Scotland), Professor Georgios Karyotis (University of Glasgow), Dr Andy Judge (University of Glasgow), Dr Sofia Collignon (Royal Holloway University of London) and Dr Dimitris Skleparis (Newcastle University). After completing a first UK-wide survey in the spring of 2020, a second survey is planned in early 2021.