Research Agenda
Current projects and research enterprises
Current Research Agenda
Quantitative Analysis of Political Text
At the MZES, I'm working on the research project "Populism in Context (POPCON): 
Comparative Textual Measures of Populism and Interactions between Politics and Media".
The project focuses on developing and applying quantitative text analysis methods to measure populism across different languages and contexts.
Ultimately, the measures are intended to be used for answering research questions such as:
- Comparative patterns of populism: "Where and when is populist rhetoric at its highest, fostered by which parties and news outlets?"
- Interactions between politics and media: "For example, if (some) media have indeed become 'more populist' in their communication, to what extent can this be explained by frames introduced by a popular populist party or politician?"
A textbook published by SAGE in 2025 with the title "Doing Quantitative Text Analysis in R: Scraping, Preparing, Visualising and Modelling Data" accompanies the project.
Empirical Patterns of Democracy
Since 2012 (with related work starting in 2007), I'm doing research on empirical patterns of democracy inspired by Arend Lijphart
with Prof. Adrian Vatter (University of Bern). The project, on which I focused most strongly during my
time as a Postdoctoral Researcher (Oberassistent) at the University of Bern between 2012 and 2017,
studies the character of democracy.
The political-institutional setup of democracy varies with respect to the diffusion of power, affecting all of the behavior of political actors as well as the performance and legitimacy of political systems. The main goals of the project are:
- A deep theoretical foundation of the concept of power diffusion
- An encompassing, up-to-date analysis of empirical patterns of democracy
- Covering determinants and consequences of democratic patterns
This has resulted in a number of articles, and a monograph: Julian Bernauer and Adrian Vatter. 2019. Power Diffusion and Democracy: Institutions, Deliberation and Outcomes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. The data collection and research based on the data is ongoing.
Prior Research Enterprises
BMBF-Funded Research Project
One-year BMBF-funded research project "Bedeutung des institutionellen Kontexts für Studienabbruch und Langzeitstudium" at the MZES (BiK) in cooperation with the DZHW (German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies) and the University of Hannover.
Local subproject: "Institutioneller Kontext Landes- und Hochschulebene"
Doctoral Research on Ethnic Politics
Doctoral research funded by the Heinrich Böll Foundation (Berlin) on the descriptive representation of ethnic minorities resulting in the publication: Julian Bernauer. 2015. Ethnic Politics, Regime Support and Conflict in Central and Eastern Europe. Houndsmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
The project focused on:
- The conditions of the electoral entry of ethnic parties
- Their success and the effects of descriptive representation on political attitudes
- Conflict behaviour using quantitative models accommodating selection bias
REPCONG Project Collaboration
Collaboration in REPCONG project on representation, together with Prof. Nathalie Giger and Dr. Jan Rosset (PI: Prof. Thomas Bräuninger, ESF grant). This project examined various aspects of political representation and democratic responsiveness.
Research Methodologies & Tools
Quantitative Text Analysis
Advanced methods for analyzing political texts, including topic modeling, sentiment analysis, and populism measurement.
Comparative Political Analysis
Large-N comparative studies of democratic institutions and their effects on political outcomes.
Statistical Modeling
Hierarchical models, selection bias correction, and multilevel analysis for complex political phenomena.
Machine Learning and AI
Leveraging machine learning algorithms and AI tools for predictive modeling and data analysis.