Academic Employment 

Since 2026
Project Leader of Föderalismus als Versuchslabor? Die deutschen Länder in der Implementierung der Klimapolitik" [Federalism as a Laboratory? The German Länder in the Implementation of Climate Policy]; funded by DFG

2024-2026
Postdoctoral Researcher in the project "Reusing qualitative data for automated text analysis. A dictionary for federalism research"; funded by VolkswagenStiftung

2021-2024
Postdoctoral Researcher in the project "The Laws of Social Cohesion"; funded by Berlin University Alliance

2021-2023
Postdoctoral Researcher in the project "Political cohesion under conditions of fiscal scarcity – German federalism in the time of COVID-19“; funded by VolkswagenStiftung

2017-2020
Doctoral Researcher in the project "Party Politics in the German Bundesrat. Voting behaviour in the Bundesrat Committees"; funded by DFG

Academic Education

2021
PhD (Dr. phil.)
FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg

Dissertation: "Europapolitik im föderalen Haus. Abstimmungsverhalten im Ausschuss für Fragen der Europäischen Union des Bundesrates" -- awarded with the "Preis für Föderalismus- und Regionalforschung" (Institut für Föderalismus, Innsbruck) and the "Lilli-Bechmann-Rahn-Preis" (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)

2016
Master of Arts in Political Science
Freie Universität Berlin

Research Stays

11/2024 GESIS – Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften (Köln)

Department: Data Services for the Social Sciences

09/2023 – 10/2023 Princeton University (USA)

Visiting Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Politics (appointed by the Dean of the Faculty)

07/2023 Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) und UNIFESP, São Paulo (Brazil)

Current project: "Föderalismus als Versuchslabor? Die deutschen Länder in der Implementierung der Klimapolitik (LABFED)" [Federalism as a Laboratory? The German Länder in the Implementation of Climate Policy]

The concept of “laboratory federalism” views federal systems as institutional settings with multiple sites for experimentation: constituent units can test new policy measures on a smaller scale, while others may observe the effects and decide whether they adapt or avoid these measures on the basis of real-world experiences. This observation was already formulated in the late nineteenth century by the British jurist and politician James Bryce, who examined American federalism during his travels through the United States. In the 1930s, Louis Brandeis, Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, took up this argument and famously described the American states as “laboratories of democracy” that can experiment with new policy measures and thus provide guidance for others.

The project draws on Brandeis’ perspective. It examines federalism in Germany not only as a system of divided powers with extensive coordination processes and conflicts, but also as an institutional framework in which political innovation can emerge and diffuse across the constituent units (Länder). In German federalism, the potential of laboratory federalism becomes particularly relevant during implementation. Political goals are usually formulated at the national or European level, while the Länder are responsible for implementing them. This is precisely the case in climate policy. The project examines laboratory federalism in German climate policy along three analytical dimensions: innovation, diffusion, and learning. It adopts a mixed-methods approach that combines qualitative content analysis, automated text analysis, and process tracing.

The project provides the first empirical assessment of laboratory federalism in Germany. At the same time, the shift in perspective opens up new insights into the possibilities and limits of federalism in addressing major transformation challenges such as achieving the constitutional provision of climate neutrality.

Completed research projects at FU Berlin: 

• Reusing qualitative data for automated text analysis. A dictionary for federalism research: In this project, we aim to construct a profound dictionary which can be used for automated text analysis. Therefore, we will edit a unique data collection that was initially gathered by qualitative content analysis. In COVFED, we investigated German federalism in times of the Covid-19 crisis. To this end, we analyzed 212 parliamentary debates on Covid-19, coded 4.610 statements made by the deputies in the German Bundestag and in the 16 state parliaments, and integrated them into a dataset that was subject to various quality checks. Due to the exceptional scope and careful qualitative coding, the existing data can be edited to construct a dictionary for automated text analysis(text-as-data). Beyond Covid-19, the dictionary enables a multifaceted data reuse for novel and relevant research projects in the areas of federalism and multi-level politics. The dictionary will also be an innovative contribution to the comparative federalism literature, serving scholars who work on other federal systems as promising starting point for research projects. In the data reuse project, the team at Freie Universität Berlin cooperates with GESIS, the largest European infrastructure institute for the social sciences.a social practice that actively shapes social coexistence. 
• The Laws of Social Cohesion (LSC): Law is a social practice that actively shapes social coexistence. The Laws of Social Cohesion charts the manyfold ways in which the law affects social cohesion: How can it promote integration, inclusion and societal discourse? Where are the limits of its integrative capacity? To what extent does it prevent participation and drives society further apart? LSC is an interdisciplinary research endeavor at the intersection of law and the social sciences. It is a joint project of the Integrative Research Institute Law & Society (LSI) of Humboldt University, the Freie Universität Empirical Legal Studies Center (FUELS), and Humboldt University's research network Recht im Kontext. 
• Political cohesion under conditions of fiscal scarcity - German federalism in the time of Covid-19 (COVFED): The project investigates the extent to which political parties leverage the federal order of government to employ opportunistic strategies in the Covid-19 crisis, and which political and institutional safeguards ("safeguards") help to thwart these strategies. Research focuses on the discursive strategies in legislative debates about the federal crisis management. For the empirical analysis, we have developed a new dataset, currently consisting of 4,610 manually coded statements. These statements were gathered trough a qualitative content analysis of plenary debates in the German state parliaments (Landtage) and in the Bundestag between February 2020 and the federal election in September 2021.

Books

• 2021. Europapolitik im föderalen Haus. Abstimmungsverhalten im Ausschuss für Fragen der Europäischen Union des Bundesrates. Baden-Baden: Nomos. Link
• 2020. Parteipolitik im Bundesrat. Der Bundesrat und seine Ausschüsse. With M. M. Müller, R. Sturm & P. Finke. Baden-Baden: Nomos. Link

Journal Articles

• 2026. Federalism and citizen preferences: a vignette experiment on policy-making in Germany. European Political Science Review, 18(3), pp. 564-574. With J. Schnabel, C. Nguyen & L. Masch. Link
• 2026. Decoding German Politics with StateParl—A Text Corpus of Plenary Protocols in the 16 German Länder Parliaments. Politische Vierteljahresschrift, online first. With C. Nguyen, E. Beltermann & S. Kropp.
• 2024. Exploring affordable housing policy in federal states: social housing and housing allowances in Australia, Austria, Canada, and Germany. With J. Schnabel. In: Regional & Federal Studies, 35(5), pp. 887-905. Link
• 2024. Navigating Conflicting Incentives: Discursive Strategies of Political Parties in Germany's Cooperative Federalism. With S. Kropp & C. Nguyen. In: Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 54(4), pp. 656-682. Link
• 2024. Attributing blame: how political parties in Germany leverage cooperative federalism. With S. Kropp & C. Nguyen. In: West European Politics, 47(7), pp. 1529-1555. Link
• 2023. Two Steps Forward, One Step Back? Party Competition, Cooperative Federalism, and Transport Policy Reforms in Germany. With C. Stecker & A. Jungjohann. In: Energy, Sustainability and Society 23 (20). Link
• 2022. Zusammenhalt im Bundesstaat. Bundesfreundliche und opportunistische Argumentationsstrategien in der Pandemie. With S. Kropp & C. Nguyen. In: dms – der moderne staat – Zeitschrift für Public Policy, Recht und Management, 15(1-2022), pp. 20-41. Link
• 2022. Partisan Voting in the German Bundesrat. The Case of its Finance Committee. With M. M. Müller. In: German Politics, 31(3), pp. 440-458. Link
• 2020. Representation of Partisan, Territorial, and Institutional Interests in Second Chambers: Evidence from the Bundesrat and its Committees. With M. M. Müller, R. Sturm & P. Finke. In: Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 50(2), pp. 213-236. Link
• 2019. The Politics of Legislative Initiatives in the German Bundesrat. With P. Finke. In: Revista Cuadernos Manuel Giménez Abad, 18, pp. 7-19. Open Access - Link
• 2019. Die Bundesratsausschüsse – ein Blick in den Maschinenraum der Bundesgesetzgebung. With P. Finke, R. Sturm & R. Zensen. In: Gesellschaft. Wirtschaft. Politik (GWP), 68(2), pp. 210-217. Link
• 2018. Europa im Parteienwettstreit in den Ausschüssen des Bundesrates. In: integration, 41(3), pp. 210-227. Link 
• 2017. Die „Veralltäglichung“ von Parteipolitik im Bundesrat? Ein neuer Datensatz zu den Voten in den Ausschüssen. With P. Finke. In: Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen (ZParl), 48(4), pp. 773-784. Link

Chapters in books & collected volumes

• 2025. Laborföderalismus in Deutschland: Experimentieren und Lernen im Bundesstaat. In: Europäisches Zentrum für Föderalismus-Forschung Tübingen (Ed.): Jahrbuch des Föderalismus. Baden-Baden: Nomos, pp. 212-221. Link
• 2024. The Role of Second Chambers in Federations: A Comparative Approach. In Grin, Eduardo, Rogério Schlegel & Johanna Schnabel (eds.): Federalism and Democracy in Brazil and Beyond. Editora Appris, 179-189.
• 2023. Tempolimit, Bußgelder und Verkehrswende: Parteipolitik und Blockademacht im Bundesrat. With C. Stecker & A. Jungjohann. In: D. Sack, H. Straßheim, K. Zimmermann (Eds.): Renaissance der Verkehrspolitik. Politik- und mobilitätswissenschaftliche Perspektiven. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, pp.49-75. Link
• 2022. Prägt Opportunismus das föderale System? Herausforderungen des „bundesfreundlichen Verhaltens“ in der Corona-Krise. With S. Kropp & C. Nguyen. In: W. Muno, C. Wagner, C. Mohamad-Klotzbach, Thomas Kestler (Eds.): Staat, Rechtsstaat und Demokratie. Wiesbaden: Springer VS,pp. 41-66. Link
• 2019. Parteipolitik im Bundesrat. Neue Erkenntnisse aus der Analyse der Ländervoten in seinen Ausschüssen. With M. M. Müller, R. Sturm & P. Finke. In: Europäisches Zentrum für Föderalismus-Forschung Tübingen (Ed.): Jahrbuch des Föderalismus. Baden-Baden: Nomos, pp. 145-160. Link

Analyses

• 2022. Alles neu macht der Mai? Die Landtagswahlen im Saarland, in Schleswig-Holstein und in Nordrhein-Westfalen 2022 With J. Röders. In: Gesellschaft. Wirtschaft. Politik (GWP), 71(3), pp. 271-275. Link
• 2021. Kompromissfindung auf dem kleinsten gemeinsamen Nenner: Der Bundesrat und das EU-Klimaziel für 2030. In: Gesellschaft. Wirtschaft. Politik (GWP), 70(2), pp. 169-174. Link
• 2019. Die Europawahl 2019 in Deutschland: Grüne Höhenflüge und die „Zerstörung der CDU“. In: Gesellschaft. Wirtschaft. Politik (GWP), 68(3), pp. 323-329. Link

Policy Briefs

• 2022. 30 Jahre Europaministerkonferenz. Handlungsoptionen und Visionen für die Zukunft. With E. Heidbreder, M. Kotzur, C. Calliess, M. Gehler, A. Hatje & J. Schnabel. Hamburg-Vigoni Forum. Link
• 2022. Landesparlamente in der COVID-19-Krise - Weder untätig noch abgehängt. With S. Kropp & C. Nguyen. Berlin University Alliance, April 2022. Link
• 2018. Political trust after the crisis: Getting citizens back on board with representative democracy. Europäische Akademie Berlin, September 2018. Link