WBZ

The scientific goal of the JMC is to examine the functioning of representative democracy in crisis mode. More specifically, the Chair studies the impact of the sovereign debt crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic on representative democracy in Europe. All the activities of the JMC are organised in three work-packages:

• WP-1 TEACHING

This WP concerns teaching that will be delivered by the Chairholder and the team

• WP-2 EUROPE NOW! 

This WP concerns outreach and, more specifically, the regular series of public events targeting the general public, practitioners, NGOs, university and high school students.

• WP-3 RESEARCH ACTIVITY

This WP concerns academic research and workshops bringing together interdisciplinary and international scholarship working on the impact of crises on representative democracy. 

The Jean Monnet Chair is embedded in the discipline of political science. The team is composed of political scientists affiliated to the Willy Brandt Centre for German and European Studies as well as the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Wroclaw.

• Chairholder – prof. Aleksandra Maatsch

Aleksandra Maatsch is a professor of political science and the Jean Monnet Chair in European Politics at the Willy Brandt Centre for German and European Studies, University of Wrocław. After completing her studies at the Central European University in Budapest (CEU), Aleksandra Maatsch acquired her PhD in political science from the University of Bremen in Germany (2011). She then worked at the Institute of Public Affairs (IPP-CSIC) in Madrid, at the University of Cambridge (POLIS), the Max Planck Institute in Cologne and at the University of Cologne (interim Chair of European and Multilevel Politics). Aleksandra Maatsch acquired her habilitation from the University of Chemnitz (Germany). She specializes in comparative European politics and legislative studies. Her research has been published in various journals such as West European Politics, the Journal of Common Market Studies and the Journal of European Public Policy. 

• Core team

Karolina Borońska-Hryniewiecka (PhD) is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Political Science, University of Wrocław and a visiting fellow at (CESSP) Panthéon-Sorbonne. In the past, she was a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute (2012-2013), a lecturer at the Masaryk University (2013-2015), head of the EU program at the Polish Institute of International Affairs (2016-2018) and a visiting fellow at (CEE) Sciences Po (2019-2020). Karolina’s research interests lie at the intersection of EU and legislative studies with a special focus on the involvement of parliaments in EU affairs. From 2019 to 2022 she has been a principal investigator in the National Science Centre-funded project “National Parliaments as Multi-Arena Players in the EU?”. Her works appeared in European Political Science Review, Politics and Governance, Journal of European Integration and the Journal of Legislative Studies.

Edgars Eihmanis (PhD) is a political scientist working at the intersection of comparative political economy and public policy. Edgars Eihmanis received master’s degrees in sociology and political science from the University of Amsterdam and a PhD degree in political science from the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence. He has participated in a number of international projects and his research has been published by leading academic outlets. His article on the effects of the European Semester “Cherry-picking external constraints” was published in Journal of European Public Policy. Before joining the University of Wrocław as a researcher in the NCN-funded project PANDEMO (https://www.pandemo.eu), Edgars Eihmanis was a post-doctoral fellow at the EUI, investigating East Central European socio-economic responses to the pandemic.

• Partner

Anna Pacześniak is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Wrocław (since 2005) specializing in European and Polish politics as well as comparative political party analysis. From 2011 to 2018 she worked as a lecturer at the Free University of Brussels, in the period 2016-2017 Anna Pacześniak was a fellow at Wallonia-Brussels International. She has conducted various research projects in Poland and abroad, for instance "Européanisation des partis politiques - méthodes d’étude" (research project conducted in 2010 in France). At the University of Wrocław, she leads the research group studying European political processes, she is also a Deputy Director of the Discipline of Political Science and Administration. Anna Pacześniak has published extensively in the area of political parties, the most recent publications being “Party organization and communication in Poland” (Palgrave 2021) or “Comprendre la Pologne. Société, politique et institutions” (Paris 2016).

MS Teams, upon email enquiry

Aleksandra Maatsch holds the Chair in Social Sciences and Economics at the Willy Brandt Centre for German and European Studies, University of Wrocław. After completing her MA studies at the Central European University in Budapest (CEU), Aleksandra Maatsch acquired a PhD in political science from the University of Bremen in Germany (2011). Afterwards she worked at the Institute of Public Affairs (IPP-CSIC) in Madrid (2011-13), at the University of Cambridge (2013-14), Max Planck Institute in Cologne (2014-16), at the University of Cologne (where she held the interim Chair of European and Multilevel Politics) and at the Catholic University of Lille. In November 2020 Aleksandra Maatsch has been awarded a degree of dr. habil from the Technical University in Chemnitz, in December 2020 she became a professor of the University of Wrocław.

Aleksandra Maatsch specializes in interdisciplinary analysis of political, social and economic aspects of the European integration process, with a particular focus on Poland and Germany. The most recent research of Aleksandra Maatsch focuses on two research areas: coordination of budgetary and economic policies of the EU member states as well as the role of parliaments during the COVID-19 pandemic (Research project funded by the National Science Centre, NCN OPUS “Democracy in Pandemic Times”, PANDEMO). In the past Aleksandra Maatsch worked on national citizenship policies in EU member states and media analysis. In her publications she applies both quantitative and qualitative research methods (for instance discourse analysis) including the QCA method.

Journal articles

• Maatsch, A. and Miklin, E. (2021) Representative democracy in danger? The impact of populist parties in government on the powers and practices of national parliaments, in: Parliamentary Affairs, Special Issue.
• Maatsch, A. (2021) Disempowerment through the backdoor: the impact of populist parties on the national parliament in Poland, in: Parliamentary Affairs,
• Miklin, E.; Maatsch, A. & Woźniakowski, T. (2021) Rising to a Challenge? 10 Years of Parliamentary Accountability of Post-Crisis EU Economic Governance, in: Politics&Governance, vol.9(3), Special Issue.
• Maatsch, A. and Kurpiel, A. (2021) Between collective and particularistic interests. Ratification of the Prespa Agreement by national parliaments in Greece and North Macedonia, in: Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, vol. 21(1),

• Cooper, I.; Maatsch, A. and Smith, J. (eds.) ‘Governance without Democracy? Analyzing the Role of Parliaments in European Economic Governance after the Crisis’, in: Parliamentary Affairs, vol. 73(4) – Special Issue.  
• Maatsch, A. (2017) ‘Effectiveness of the European Semester: Explaining Domestic Consent and Contestation’, in: Parliamentary Affairs, vol. 73(4).
• Maatsch, A. (2016) ‘Drivers of Political Parties’ Voting Behaviour in European Economic Governance: The Ultimate Decline of the Economic Cleavage?’ in: West European Politics, 39(4).  
• Closa, C. and Maatsch, A. (2014) ‘In a spirit of solidarity? Justifying the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) in national parliamentary debates’, in:  Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 52(4).  
• Maatsch, A. (2014) ‘Are we all austerians now? An analysis of national parliamentary parties’ positioning on anti-crisis measures in the eurozone’, in: Journal of European Public Policy, vol. 21(1).  

Monographies

• Maatsch, A. (2017) Parliaments and the Economic Governance of the European Union: Talking Shops or Deliberative Bodies? (London: Routledge).  
• Maatsch, A. (2011) Ethnic Citizenship Regimes. Europeanisation, Post-War Migration and Redressing Past Wrongs (London: Palgrave Macmillan).

Aleksandra Maatsch is currently the Principal Investigator of the research project funded by the National Science Centre, NCN, entitled „Democracy in pandemic times: a decline or a new form of representative democracy?”, PANDEMO. Prior collaborative experience of Aleksandra Maatsch is based on participation in four international research projects and networks: (1) “Citizenship and constitutionalisation: transformations of the public sphere in the East and West European integration”, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, (2) “Reconstituting Democracy in Europe” (RECON), a European 7^th framework project directed by ARENA, (3) Observatory of Parliaments after the Lisbon Treaty (OPAL) and (4) Parliamentary Democracy in Europe (PADEMIA). Beyond that, Aleksandra Maatsch obtained individual funding from: VW Foundation, ESRC and Consejo Superior de Investigationes Científicas & Fondo Social Europeo (JAE-Doc).

English, German, Polish and Spanish