The interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Democracy was founded on 2 June 2004 on the recommendation of the Scientific Commission of Lower Saxony under the chairmanship of Professor Dr. Hans Dieter Klingemann. Founding Director and Head of the CSD from 2004 to 2018 was Professor Dr. Ferdinand Müller-Rommel. 

The Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) brings together the research activities of the members of the Institute for Political Science (IPW) under one roof. The Center is primarily concerned with the analysis of democratic orders and processes. The research activities can be divided into three core areas:

• The institutional, ideational and material foundations of democratic orders;
• The drivers of political change in these orders;
• And the impact of democratic policymaking on society, economy and the environment.

The Centre is also actively involved in promoting young scientists and fosters the international and regional networking of research institutions devoted to the study of democracy.

The activities of the CSD include:

• Implementing research projects on the three core topics: foundations, transformation, and impact of democracy
• Organization of international conferences and workshops on current issues of democracy research
• Collection and coordination of international data sets, especially the World Values Survey, the Comparative Political Data Set, and the database on Central and Eastern European Political Systems and Governments
• Promotion of research in the form of doctoral and post-doctoral scholarships at the Center
• Hosting regular guest lectures by internationally renowned scientists and early career researchers
• Active scientific promotion of young talent in the form of regular doctoral seminars on theories and methods of democracy research as well as in the form of summer schools for doctorate students and inter-university graduate networks
• Establishing contacts between science and practice

• PHD-Summerschool
• Politikberatung