Contact
Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz
Department of Political Science
Jakob-Welder-Weg 12
55128 Mainz, Germany
Room: GFG 047-328
Mail: kwalz@uni-mainz.de
Office hours
Monday from 1 to 2 pm (registration by e-mail)
CV
Since 04/2024 Research Associate at the Institute for Political Science at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz
04/2021-03/2024 PhD scholarship of the Graduate Research Group Resilient Institutions at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz
04/2018-07/2020 Teaching Assistant at the Institute of Political Science and Sociology at Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg
2017-2020 M.A. Political and Social Sciences at Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg
2012-2016 B.A. Political and Social Studies at Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg
Research Interest
Democratic Erosion and Resilience
Political Institutions
Democratic Theory
Comparative Politics
Dissertation Project: Anti-Pluralists, Democratic Erosion, and the Breakdown Resilience of Democratic Regimes
Democracy is massively under pressure as a “third wave of autocratization” (Lührmann & Lindberg 2019) is still rolling worldwide. Focussing contemporary Episodes of Autocratization, Scholars lately postulated the emergence of a new dominant pattern of how Democracies decay and die. According to their findings, democratic regimes nowadays rarely collapse within short periods but seem to die slowly in gradual processes eroding fundamental democratic institutions and principles more often. There is evidence, that in many cases, democratic erosion is mainly driven by anti-pluralist actors who got voted into office and therefore, feature a minimum degree of democratic legitimacy. In most cases, Anti-Pluralists successfully change the rules of the game and transform the democratic system into an autocratic one. Only in extremely rare cases do they fail, and Democracy survives. This study examines under which circumstances the ‘Defenders of Democracy’ successfully stop democratic erosion, and what we can learn from this about the “breakdown resilience” (Boese et al. 2021) of democratic regimes.
Teaching
- Introduction to the Political System of Germany, Basic Module Course (WT 2024/25)
- Political Theory, Basic Module Course (ST 2024)
- Theory and Empiricism of Democratic Erosion, Advanced Module Course (WT 2022/23)