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Version 1.0.0 (Pre-Release) of the GLES Cross-Section 2021, Post-Election (ZA7701) is available


Categories: GESIS-News

The GLES pre-election and post-election cross-section is a population survey based on a probabilistic sample that has been conducted in the eight weeks before and after each federal election since 2009. For the 2021 GLES pre-election cross-section, 3,424 interviews were implemented between Sept. 25, 2021 and Nov. 21, 2021. Since the survey includes a large number of questions, the background of voting intention, voter turnout and voting decision can be analyzed in depth. Due to the large number of cases, it is also possible to conduct meaningful analyses of subgroups of the electorate. The oversampling of respondents from eastern Germany also allows for east-west analyses. In addition to the fixed program of questions, this year's survey included questions on current political issues (e.g., the Corona pandemic, compulsory vaccination, rent caps, climate change, equality), trust in institutions and the feeling of subjective detachment.

Due to the Corona pandemic, the design was adapted for the 2021 federal election. This year, the cross-section was conducted in a mixed-mode design consisting of web-based (CAWI) and written (PAPI) interviews with an interview invitation by mail. The information provided by respondents in CAWI and PAPI modes is published together in one dataset.

This publication is a pre-release. For this purpose, the data have already been subjected to an initial check, verification and cleaning. This includes, but is not limited to, the comprehensibility and completeness of the labeling, correct coding of the values, adaptation to the missing value scheme of the GLES, addition of further meta- and paradata, and exclusion or recoding of variables that are problematic from a data protection point of view. The data sets are initially published in German only, but the variable names are language-independent and are used consistently in the German and future English documents. Variables that are included in both the pre-election and post-election cross-section have been assigned the same variable name. This is to facilitate the joint evaluation of the pre-election and post-election cross-section.

Further brief information on the methodology and data preparation can be found in the preface of the questionnaire documentation.

You can access the data via the GLES homepage (https://gles.eu/daten/) or directly via the GESIS search function (https://search.gesis.org/). The complete metadata and an overview of all available datasets and documents are still provided by the Data Catalogue.