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Elections, Politics, and Political Behavior

Empirical elections and politics research looks at political behavior and the political attitudes of voters, parties and their members, and candidates. Political studies use complex survey designs that connect data from different sources (e.g. voters’ and candidates’ responses to survey) and different structures (e.g. cross-sectional or longitudinal surveys). GESIS offers one such complex study: the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES). In addition, GESIS hosts the Secretariat of the Comparative Study of Election Systems (CSES), with data collected from some 60 countries. It also grants researchers access to national and international survey programs like the Politbarometer or the European Election Study. Reflecting the principle of research-based data infrastructure GESIS employees –– conduct original research on these national and comparative studies. Staff specialties include: economic influence on vote choice (including wealth and ideological perceptions about economic redistribution); electoral and non-electoral participation; individual determinants of vote choice; and the impact of social media on voters, politicians, and political parties.

Learn more about our consulting and services:

  • Ulloa, Roberto, Mykola Makhortykh, Aleksandra Urman, and Juhi Kulshrestha. 2023. "Novelty in News Search: A Longitudinal Study of the 2020 US Elections." Social Science Computer Review online first. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393231195471.
  • Martins Rosa, Jorge, N. Gizem Bacaksizlar Turbic, Alda Magalhães Telles, Clara González Tosat, Cristian Jiménez Ruiz, Kalliopi Moraiti, Özgür Karadeniz, and Valentina Pallacci. 2022. "Exploring User Engagement with Portuguese Political Party Pages on Facebook: Data Sprint as Workflow." Dígitos. Revista de Comunicación Digital 8 127-154. doi: https://doi.org/10.7203/drdcd.v1i8.233.
  • Cardoso, Daniel, N. Gizem Bacaksizlar Turbic, Jorge Martins Rosa, and Marisa Torres da Silva. 2022. "Maximizing the Audiences: Portuguese Parties' Facebook Presence in 2019." General Online Research Conference (Berlin, Germany), 2022-09-07.
  • Gábos, András, Barbara Binder, Réka Branyiczki, and István G. Tóth. 2019. "Employment and poverty dynamics before, during, and after the crisis." In Decent Incomes for All: Improving Policies in Europe, edited by Bea Cantillon, Tim Goedemé, and John Hills, International Policy Exchange Series. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Silber, Henning, Patricia Moy, Timothy P. Johnson, Rico Neumann, Sven Stadtmüller, and Lydia Repke. 2022. "Survey participation as a function of democratic engagement, trust in institutions, and perceptions of surveys." Social Science Quarterly 103 (7): 1619-1632. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.13218.