German Longitudinal Election Study

The German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) is the central infrastructure project in Germany for the continuous collection and provision of high-quality data for national and international comparative election research. The methodologically diverse surveys carried out by GLES enable the political attitudes and behavior of voters and candidates to be examined. Since the 2009 Bundestag election, GLES has been carried out in close cooperation between the German Society for Election Research (DGfW) and GESIS - Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences .

The study was initiated in 2009 by Hans Rattinger ( University of Mannheim ), Sigrid Roßteutscher ( University of Frankfurt am Main ), Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck (University of Mannheim) and Bernhard Weßels ( Berlin Science Center ). In 2012 Christof Wolf (GESIS) joined as a primary researcher. In 2014 there was a change in personnel; due to his retirement, Hans Rattinger left the study, his tasks were taken over by Harald Schoen (University of Mannheim).

Between 2009 and 2017, the project was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as a long-term project. During this time, the study was institutionalized, so that it will be institutionalized from 2018 and carried out jointly by GESIS and the DGfW.

Design of the GLES

core

The core of the study is an extensive face-to-face interview with a random sample of the electorate, which is split up into an area code and a post-election wave. These cross-sections include a large number of variables in order to be able to analyze the background of the voting decisions as far as possible. In order to be able to carry out meaningful analyzes of subgroups of the electorate, they are also carried out with a large number of cases.

Analysis of short-term dynamics of the electoral process

Several components serve to analyze short-term dynamics of the electoral process. A rolling cross-section survey carried out during the election campaign can identify changes in public opinion in response to party campaigns and media coverage. This pre-election study is supplemented by a post-election panel wave, which also makes it possible at the individual level to examine the relationship between attitudes during the election campaign and at the end of the election campaign, including the actual voting decision.

Since it is necessary to observe the effects of campaigns also in the pre-election phase at the individual level, this component is supplemented by a short-term election campaign panel that was implemented with the help of an online access panel .

These two components of the survey are accompanied by analyzes of the election context. A content analysis of media coverage during the election campaign focuses on the most important issues, candidate profiles and evaluations by the media, as well as possible coalition scenarios. Due to the increasing importance of TV duels of the top candidates of the parties, the GLES also includes a detailed study of the TV duel. In addition, the GLES includes a candidate study to examine possible influences of local election campaigns by direct candidates.

With the help of these study parts, a comprehensive picture of the supply side of the electoral process can be drawn. Together, the short-term components of GLES provide unprecedented insights into campaign dynamics and voter orientations, as well as the context of the election as determined by parties, their candidates and the media. The components enable a detailed and fine-grained evaluation of the changes in attitudes and orientations of the voters during the election campaign - both in aggregate and on the individual level.

Observation of long-term dynamics

Since the opinion-forming process of the voters does not end on election day, but attitudes develop and change over the period between two elections, it is not just a matter of observing a single election and the election campaign that precedes it, but rather several one on top of the other with different - and interconnected - instruments to record subsequent elections and to follow the dynamics of the interaction between voters and parties over the entire electoral cycle.

In a long-term panel - which is based on the pre-election and post-election cross-section - the same people will be asked about the subsequent federal elections in order to gain detailed insights into the extent and forms of electoral change. A continuous long-term tracking study, which is carried out as an online survey over the entire election cycle, precisely records the dynamics of the perceptions and evaluations of parties and politicians between the elections and also examines the influence of second-order elections. The long-term tracking from GESIS funds was supplemented by a preselection tracking study with five surveys. In order to better understand the background to this dynamic, a long-term analysis of media coverage and events is carried out in parallel. Linking these two components makes it possible to explain changes in the evaluations of the parties. By including second-order elections (at state level and European level), their influence on federal elections can be analyzed.

In addition, a multi-level panel was carried out in which respondents from five federal states (Brandenburg, Saarland, Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia) were interviewed in three waves for the European elections, the federal elections and the respective state elections in order to find out reasons for possible intra-individual differences in the To be able to determine the choice between political levels (financed by GESIS and the Goethe University Frankfurt).

The integration of the GLES components

All survey components are linked by a key questionnaire, which is completed by component-specific questions in order to realize the individual analysis goals of each component. The similar time frame also makes it possible to compare the various components with one another. Parallel to the survey components, the election campaign media content analysis, the analysis of the TV duel, the candidate study and the long-term media and event analysis provide context-related information for the explanation of individual behavior, which can be related to individual behavior through specific questions.

Data

The data sets generated within the framework of GLES are available to the public free of charge and can be downloaded from the database catalog (DBK) after registering with GESIS.

GLES Young Researchers' Network

In addition to providing high quality data for the scientific community, GLES aims to support young researchers by offering a platform for community building, scientific exchange and the establishment of collaborations - the Young Researchers' Network (YRN). This network is open to domestic and foreign researchers who are at the beginning of their scientific careers and who use data generated by GLES for their dissertation or research papers. The Young Researchers' Network offers its members up-to-date information on GLES and the possibility of scientific exchange with other GLES data users. Members also have the opportunity to take part in international conferences within the framework of panels organized by GLES.

See also

• Longitudinal study
• Cross-sectional study
• Election research
• Panel data
• Austrian National Election Study

Web links

• Official GLES website
• Official DGfW website
• GLES data at GESIS

Individual evidence

1. ↑ German Longitudinal Election Study ( Memento of the original from September 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Website of the German Longitudinal Election Study. Retrieved June 27, 2011.  
2. ↑ Data from the GESIS German Longitudinal Election Study website. Retrieved June 27, 2011.