The POLITEX project asks four questions: What are the functions of the cabinet? How does the cabinet make its decisions? What characterizes and shapes the role of the cabinet minister? And: How are norms about agenda setting, decision-making, and roles in the cabinet transferred to new office holders?
POLITEX combines sociological and historical perspectives with perspectives from political science and legal scholarship in studying the operation of cabinet government. In terms of research design, the project is in-depth, spatial and temporal. The most in-depth data will be collected for Norway, but considerable data will be collected for Sweden and Denmark, too, to accommodate spatial comparisons. The project’s data collection components are interviews, a survey, document/archive study, and biographic data. More information about the project can be found here.
The PhD Fellow is expected to develop his/her own project within the project’s topical and geographical borders. We encourage a project proposal with a tentative overall thematic and theoretical framework and ideas for at least three academic articles. There is no preference for specific theoretical approaches. Also, there is no absolute requirement on the methodological approach, but the project has a preference for a PhD Fellow whose proposed project involves strong elements of quantitative methods. The candidate will be given access to data collected by the project but is expected to design a project with also additional data collection activities especially suited to the needs of the PhD project. Again, interested applicants are encouraged to contact the project leader to discuss tentative project ideas.
The successful candidate will be part of the Faculty’s PhD programme. The work is expected to lead to a PhD in political science.