Martin Gross

Martin Gross is an Associate Professor (Akademischer Rat auf Lebenszeit) for Political Systems and European Integration at the Geschwister Scholl Institute of Political Science, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Previously, he served as Professor for Comparative Political Science (pro tempore, 2020-2021) and Professor for Political Systems and European Integration (pro tempore, 2019-2020 and 2023) at the same institution. He was also an External Fellow of the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) at the University of Mannheim from 2017-2019.

His educational background includes:

• PhD in Political Science from Friedrich Schiller University Jena (2015)
• Master of Arts in History and Politics of the 20th Century from Friedrich Schiller University Jena (2008-2010)
• Bachelor of Arts in Political and Administrative Science from University of Konstanz (2005-2008)
• Habilitation on 'Dynamic party competition in European multi-level systems' from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (2022)

Martin Gross's research focuses on party competition, coalition politics, and policy outputs in multi-level systems; local politics; EU Cohesion policy; political representation and responsiveness; and text analysis. His work examines how political parties behave across different governmental levels, with particular attention to German local politics. He has conducted extensive research on coalition formation, especially between the CDU and Greens in German cities, and has investigated patterns of political representation at the municipal level.

His recent publications demonstrate a strong empirical focus on local politics, coalition formation, and representation in multi-level systems. His methodological approach combines quantitative text analysis with traditional political science methods to examine party manifestos, coalition agreements, and parliamentary questions. His work has been published in top political science journals including West European Politics, Party Politics, and Regional & Federal Studies.

Martin Gross has received recognition for his work, including an award for the best dissertation in political science in 2015 at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. His dissertation on coalition formation processes was published with Springer VS.

He currently leads multiple research projects funded by the German Research Council (DFG) and the LMU Innovation Fund, focusing on intra-party conflict regulation, independent local lists, and the politicization of sports. Together with Michael Jankowski, he leads 'The Local Manifesto Project (LMP),' a resource for analyzing local party competition through computational text analysis methods. He has taught numerous courses at LMU Munich on comparative politics, local politics, coalition governments, and European integration.