The Max Planck Institute for Political and Social Science aims to understand and explain major contemporary challenges to political, social, and economic life, including democratic backsliding, inequality, migration, conflict, climate change, and the socio-political consequences of digital transformation. The institute integrates theoretical, analytical and empirical approaches from across the social sciences, with a strong emphasis on the political dimension. Its goal is to generate rigorous, evidence-based insights that address pressing issues for policy and society.

Research at the institute is organized into three departments, two of which are currently active. The Department of Political Institutions and Conflict (headed by Ursula Daxecker) studies the origins, dynamics, and consequences of political conflict, with an emphasis on the Global South. It examines how institutions and norms shape conflicts, and how these processes contribute to polarization, violence, and democratic erosion. The Department of Inequality, Transformation and Conflict (headed by Steffen Mau) focuses on social change and the politicization of inequality, analyzing how transformations in social, material, and cultural status orders lead to conflicts over distribution, recognition, migration, and belonging. A third department is planned.

The new institute succeeds the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, the research program of which will conclude at the end of 2026. To facilitate the transition, Steven Vertovec, Managing Director and director of the Department for Socio-Cultural Diversity, will continue in both roles until the end of the year.