Christian Welzel (born 1964) is a German

political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and l ...

at the

Leuphana University Lueneburg Leuphana (Λευφάνα) is a city name, first mentioned by Ptolemy in the year 150 in the Atlas Geographia. Ptolemy mentioned in Geographica 2, that ten cities unified by their not being under Roman occupation, created a settlement named Leupha ...

and director of research at the World Values Survey Association. He is known for the model of

cultural dimensions Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tylor ...

which measures emancipative values and secular values.

University education and career

Welzel obtained his

Magister Artium A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

(M.A.) degree in political science and economic history at the Saarland University in 1991 and continued with a doctorate at the

University of Potsdam The University of Potsdam is a public university in Potsdam, capital of the state of Brandenburg, Germany. It is mainly situated across three campuses in the city. Some faculty buildings are part of the New Palace of Sanssouci which is known ...

. For his monograph ''Democratic Elite Change: The Renewal of East German Elites from the Perspective of Democratic Sociology'' he was awarded a PhD with distinction in 1996. He worked as a senior research fellow in the department of “Institutions and Social Change” of the

Social Science Research Center Berlin The WZB Berlin Social Science Center (german: Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, WZB), also known by its German initials WZB, is an internationally renowned research institute for the social sciences, the largest such institution ...

and qualified as professor at the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and ...

. Following the publication of ''Vantage Point ‘Human Development’: On the Roots of Democracy and the Causes of its Diffusion'' he became

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...

and started working as visiting professor at the University of Potsdam in 2000. In 2002, he moved to

Bremen University The University of Bremen (German: ''Universität Bremen'') is a public university in Bremen, Germany, with approximately 23,500 people from 115 countries. It is one of 11 institutions which were successful in the category "Institutional Strategi ...

as associate professor of political science. In 2006 Welzel was promoted to

full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

. Having spent eight years in Bremen, he took a new job as professor of

political culture Political culture describes how culture impacts politics. Every political system is embedded in a particular political culture. Definition Gabriel Almond defines it as "the particular pattern of orientations toward political actions in which ...

research at the Institute of Political Science and Center for the Study of Democracy at the Leuphana University in 2010. In the same year, he became research professor at the Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Welzel also spends much time in the United States, where he maintains close ties with researchers and professors from the Center for the Study of Democracy at the University of California, Irvine. In 2015 he became a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

Areas of academic interest

* Modernization,

social change Social change is the alteration of the social order of a society which may include changes in social institutions, social behaviours or social relations. Definition Social change may not refer to the notion of social progress or sociocult ...

, and human development * Democratization, quality of democracy and governance quality * Value formation,

cultural change Culture change is a term used in public policy making that emphasizes the influence of cultural capital on individual and community behavior. It has been sometimes called repositioning of culture, which means the reconstruction of the cultural conce ...

Generational Replacement Generational replacement is a theory proposed by Paul R. Abramson and Ronald Inglehart that attributes changes in values between young people and their elders to their different circumstances growing up. Because people's formative experiences in ...

and

public opinion Public opinion is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to a society. It is the people's views on matters affecting them. Etymology The term "public opinion" was derived from the French ', which was first use ...

* Protest participation and social movements *

Civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.social capital

Value orientation, value change and World Values Survey

Since Welzel joined the Center for the Study of Democracy at the Leuphana University in Lueneburg, work on the World Values Survey project has been an important part of the center’s research activities. Welzel is responsible for the German part of the survey, which involves 2000 face-to-face interviews. In recent years, Welzel has focused largely on the effect that emancipative values have on the emergence and stability of democratic regimes and developed a well-reasoned theory of emancipation. In his latest book

Freedom Rising ''Freedom Rising: Human Empowerment and the Quest for Emancipation'' is a 2013 book by the German political scientist Christian Welzel, professor of political culture and political sociology at Leuphana University Lueneburg and vice-president o ...

he presents an all-embracing theory of “why human freedom gave way to increasing oppression since the invention of states - and why this trend began to reverse itself more recently, leading to a rapid expansion of universal freedoms and democracy.”Quote from http://www.cambridge.org/welzel

Bibliography

''Monographs'' * . * . * . * . ''Edited Volumes'' * . * . * . ''Scientific articles'' * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * .

References

External links

Christian Welzel's site at Leuphana University LueneburgWorld Values Survey AssociationChristian Welzel's ''Freedom Rising'' at Cambridge University Press
with extensive online resources for replication studies
Christian Welzel's Google Scholar profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Welzel, Christian 1964 births Leuphana University of Lüneburg faculty German political scientists Higher School of Economics faculty Winners of the Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research Living people Members of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina