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A collaborative program of research among election teams
Module 1 (1996-2001) focused on the impact of electoral institutions on political behavior, the nature of cleavages and alignments, and the evaluation of democratic processes.
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A collaborative program of research among election teams
Module 2 (2001-2006) focused on representation and accountability via three key theoretical questions about accountability, engagement, and the institutional context for decision-making.
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A collaborative program of research among election teams
Module 3 (2006-2011) focused on perceptions of, assessments of, and responses to the variety and quality of political choices in an election. To what degree political systems provide meaningful alternatives and electoral competition?
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A collaborative program of research among election teams
Module 4 (2011-2016) focused on distributional politics and social protection, with a goal of revealing voter preferences for policies that affect income and wealth distribution.
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A collaborative program of research among election teams
Module 5 (2016-2021) focused on citizens’ perceptions of political elites and out-groups, and the implications for electoral democracy.
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A collaborative program of research among election teams
Module 6 (2021-2026) assesses citizens' role in representative democracy under pressure.
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Updates
March 19, 2026
CSES Announcement: Winner of the 2025 GESIS Klingemann Prize for the Best CSES Scholarship
March 6, 2026
CSES Announcement: Call for Nominations – 2026 Awards for Outstanding Scholarship Using CSES Data
March 6, 2026
CSES Announcement: Study Name, Secretariat Transitions, and Award Opportunities
January 29, 2026
CSES Announcement: Name change to The Comparative Study of Election Surveys
December 16, 2025
CSES Announcement: The Second Advance Release of CSES Module 6 is now available
August 5, 2025
CSES Announcement: CSES Is Hiring!
June 25, 2025
December 17, 2024
CSES Announcement: First Advance Release of CSES Module 6 is now available
September 16, 2024
CSES Announcement: Winner of the 2024 GESIS Klingemann Prize for the Best CSES Scholarship
September 3, 2024
CSES Announcement: Reception at APSA 2024 in Philadelphia
March 25, 2024
February 27, 2024
CSES Announcement: Updated Integrated Module Dataset (IMD) now available
February 26, 2024
CSES Announcement: Second Call for Ideas for Module 7 Content
July 25, 2023
CSES Announcement: CSES Module 5 Full Release is now available for download
July 3, 2023
CSES Announcement: Call for Proposals for Module 7 Content
May 5, 2023
CSES Announcement: Winner of the 2023 GESIS Klingemann Prize for the Best CSES Scholarship
January 19, 2023
November 17, 2022
CSES Announcement: Call for nominations for Module 7 Planning Committee members
August 16, 2022
CSES Announcement: Winner of the 2022 GESIS Klingemann Prize for the Best CSES Scholarship
July 14, 2022
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Because of CSES, we know that…
Globalization increases electoral fairness.
Birch 2016
Voters are not only concerned about party positions, but also policy outcomes.
Kedar 2005, 2006
Inequality undermines public goods provision.
Baldwin and Huber 2010
Adverse economic conditions motivate political participation.
Karp and Milazzo 2016