Einleitung des Sonderheftes: Die GLES Open Science Challenge 2021: Ein Pilotprojekt zur Anwendbarkeit von Registered Reports in der quantitativen Politikwissenschaft

The GLES Open Science Challenge 2021 was a pioneering initiative in quantitative political science. Aimed at increasing the adoption of replicable and transparent research practices, it led to this special issue. The project combined the rigor of registered reports—a new publication format in which studies are evaluated prior to data collection/access and analysis—with quantitative political science research in the context of the 2021 German federal election. This special issue, which features the registered reports that resulted from the project, shows that transparent research following open science principles benefits our discipline and substantially contributes to quantitative political science. In this introduction to the special issue, we first elaborate on why more transparent research practices are necessary to guarantee the cumulative progress of scientific knowledge. We then show how registered reports can contribute to increasing the transparency of scientific practices. Next, we discuss the application of open science practices in quantitative political science to date. And finally, we present the process and schedule of the GLES Open Science Challenge and give an overview of the contributions included in this special issue.Die GLES Open Science Challenge 2021 war ein Pilotprojekt in der quantitativen Politikwissenschaft, die darauf abzielte, die Akzeptanz von replizierbaren und transparenten Forschungspraktiken zu erhöhen. Dieses Sonderheft enthält die im Rahmen dieses Projektes entstandenen Artikel. Die GLES Open Science Challenge verband die strengen Regeln von Registered Reports – einem neuen Publikationsformat, bei dem Studien vor der Datenanalyse begutachtet werden – mit quantitativer Politikwissenschaft im Kontext der Bundestagswahl 2021. Die Beiträge dieses Sonderheftes zeigen, dass transparente Forschung, die den Prinzipien von Open Science folgt, unserer Disziplin zugutekommt und einen wesentlichen Beitrag zur quantitativen Politikwissenschaft leistet. In dieser Einleitung zum Sonderheft erläutern wir zunächst, warum transparentere Forschungspraktiken notwendig sind, um den kumulativen Fortschritt der wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisse zu gewährleisten. Dann zeigen wir auf, wie Registered Reports dazu beitragen können, die Transparenz wissenschaftlicher Praktiken zu erhöhen. Anschließend diskutieren wir die bisherige Anwendung von Open-Science-Praktiken in der quantitativen Politikwissenschaft. Nachfolgend stellen wir den Prozess und den Zeitplan der GLES Open Science Challenge vor und geben abschließend einen Überblick über die in diesem Sonderheft enthaltenen Beiträge

Support for Redistribution in Western Europe: Assessing the role of religion

Previous sociological studies have paid little attention to religion as a central determinant of individual preferences for redistribution. In this article we argue that religious individuals, living in increasingly secular societies, differ in political preferences from their secular counterparts. Based on the theory of religious cleavages, we expect that religious individuals will oppose income redistribution by the state. Furthermore, in contexts where the polarization between religious and secular individuals is large, preferences for redistribution will be lower. In the empirical analysis we test our predictions in a multilevel framework, using data from the European Social Survey 2002–2006 for 16 Western European countries. After controlling for a wide range of individual socio-economic factors and for welfare-state policies, religion plays and important explanatory role. We find that both Catholics and Protestants strongly oppose income redistribution by the state. The cleavage between religious and secular individuals is far more important than the difference between denominations. Using a refined measure of religious polarization, we also find that in more polarized context the overall level of support for redistribution is lower