Political Economy and Philosophy

The track Political Economy and Philosophy focusses on the complexity of political decisions. Numerous political decisions affect our future in the long term, are characterized by uncertain knowledge, usually involve contradictory valuations and are of great social significance. In order to understand political decision-making processes - and in order to be able to prepare appropriate shifts in direction in a well-informed manner - various disciplinary and methodological perspectives are connected with each other.
Politics essentially means the struggle of collectively assigning goods, rights and obligations. Political decision-making processes, their conditions, mechanisms and consequences, as well as the associated conflicts between different social groups are thus the central object of Political Science. In order to understand these processes, political phenomena within the framework of the track are considered alongside the central Political Science perspective - especially comparative Political Science and policy analysis, from the perspectives of political economy, political sociology and philosophy. In this context, the political-economic teaching events provide specific competences in the analysis of socioeconomic conflicts and the functioning and impact of institutions, in consideration of the problems of collective action under conditions of economic scarcity. Political sociology sharpens the view for the changing socio-structural conditions, under which politics takes place on the one hand and which influences politics on the other. Philosophy finally provides additional tools that enable general analyzes: to argue rigorously, to think logically, conclusively justify, critically question, historically reflect.
In this track, the students learn to comprehensively reconstruct political decision-making problems, to question their political-economic, normative and possibly ethical components and to systematically assess the quality of the decisions made. Graduates of this track are particularly well prepared for career prospects in science and in political and economic decision-making. In addition to the scientific value, the focus of Political Economy & Philosophy is a broadly oriented study of governmental decision-making that prepares leaders in politics, business and society to act diligently.