19th Karlsruhe Dialogues – Speakers

What is Pegida – in Dresden and Elsewhere?

Prof. Dr. Werner J. Patzelt

Speaker

Prof. Dr. Werner J. Patzelt, born in Passau, Germany, in 1953, studied political science, sociology, and history in Munich, Strasbourg, and Ann Arbor. He was a fellow of the ‘Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes’ (German National Academic Foundation). From 1980 to 1991 he worked as a research assistant at the University of Passau’s Department of Political Science. He completed his PhD in 1984 and his habilitation in 1990. Patzelt has been professor of political systems and system comparison at the Technische Universität Dresden since 1991.

He is a member, inter alia, of the Executive Committee of the International Political Science Association, the ‘Kommission für Geschichte des Parlamentarismus und der politischen Parteien’ (Commission for the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties), and the board of trustees of the Saxon State Agency for Civic Education, as well as Chairman of the scientific advisory board of ,Deutsches Institut für sachunmittelbare Demokratie’ (German Institute for Direct Democracy). He is also editor of the Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen magazine and co-editor of the Studien zum Parlamentarismus series, which is published by Nomos.

Patzelt’s primary research includes comparative work into political parties, systems, and parliamentarism, as well as evolutionary institutionalism and the epistemological foundations of the social sciences.

He is the author of numerous publications, book chapters, and essays, particularly on the research topics of parliamentarism and legislators, political parties, and the political system of the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as political education. Patzelt is also a commentator of current events in the press and on radio and television. In his spare time, he is a cellist and choirmaster.