Do radical right parties cause the party systems of Europe to shift to the right? What impact have these parties on the political attitudes of citizens? How do terror attacks affect public opinion in Europe? Do incumbents have systematic advantages when competing for votes and offices? This seminar deals with these questions with a special focus on the methods of causal inference which allow conclusions to be drawn about the impact of certain political events. Based on an introduction into the basics of experiments in the social sciences, we will discuss a variety of (quasi-)experimental research designs (Survey Experiment, Regression Discontinuity Design, Instrumental Variables, Differences-in-Differences). These discussions will be supplemented with current applications from the field of public opinion and party research. In addition, we will apply these research designs using R/Stata. close