Publications 2023

"Political science presents itself as an integrative discipline. However, its sub-disciplines and sub-disciplines are integrated only organizationally, not theoretically; because a universally accepted political science theory does not yet exist. This situation is considered normal; indeed, it even seems to enable particular interdisciplinary flexibility. Without a theoretical framework, however, political science discourses, knowledge acquisition, and learning processes are difficult to achieve. Politics is therefore far less well understood scientifically than technical and natural science subjects—a fatal deficit in a time of existential political challenges (...). In light of this, political science should reflect on its own contribution to global political failure and on its potential for innovation: What are the intellectual, and thus also social-scientific, underlying factors of global political failure? What role does the existing theoretical deficit play in this, and what lessons can be learned from it?"

The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has left many speechless: How could Putin do this? What motivated him to commit this grave violation of international law and crime against humanity? And why do dictators and populists not distance themselves from it, or even support it? These initially complex questions can be clearly analyzed from a civil theory perspective: based on dominant relationship logics and interaction types.

The fully developed Civility Theory has been accessible since September 2023: Felix Zachau, research associate at Civility gUG, discusses this with the author, Volker von Prittwitz.

The German sports policy disaster at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar ultimately resulted from the German Football Association's (DFB) attempting to achieve two things: 1) participating in the World Cup with its national team, and 2) publicly expressing its critical stance towards the host country and the awarding of the tournament. In doing so, the association overstepped its bounds and appeared as a troublemaker within the otherwise accepted World Cup; conversely, the association also displayed a fearful indecisiveness regarding its commitment to the fundamental principles of sport: strict equality and freedom for all athletes. To learn from this, sport, sports policy, and general politics must be differentiated according to their respective human rights aspects – as the basis for responsible and decisive sports policy.