Project

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Swiss Electoral Studies (Selects) 2013-2014

Applicant Lutz Georg
Number 145233
Funding scheme Research Infrastructure
Research institution Fondation FORS Bâtiment Geopolis Université de Lausanne
Institution of higher education Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences - FORS
Main discipline Political science
Start/End 01.01.2013 - 31.12.2013
Approved amount 347'345.00
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All Disciplines (3)

Discipline
Political science
Sociology
Communication sciences

Keywords (5)

Election Survey; Rolling cross section; Candidate survey; Swiss elections; Voting behaviour

Lay Summary (German)

Lead
Das Wahlforschungsprojekt Selects ist in mehrere Schweizer Universitäten eingebettet. Das Projekt begann 1995 mit dem Ziel, die Schweizer Wahlforschung an den internationalen Stand anzupassen. Im Rahmen von Selects werden seither bei allen Wahlen Daten zum Wahlverhalten erhoben, die frei zugänglich sind. Bei jeder Wahl werden neue innovative Komponenten und Fragestellungen eingebaut. Die Daten wurden bereits für viele Publikationen und mehrere Doktorarbeiten verwendet.
Lay summary

Im Rahmen der Wahlstudie 2011 der Swiss Electoral Studies (Selects) wurden verschiedene Daten erhoben, welche alle seit 2012 für Forschungszwecke frei zugänglich sind. Diese beinhalten eine telefonische Nachwahlbefragung bei 4391 Stimmberechtigten in der Schweiz, eine telefonische rolling-cross section (RCS) Studie bei der 4001 Interview während 41 Tagen vor den Wahlen durchgeführt wurden, eine schriftliche/online Befragung von ungefähr 20 Seiten unter allen 3547 Kandidierenden für den National- und Ständerat, von denen 1676 (47%) auch mitgemacht haben, eine Befragung von 1629 Auslandschweizerinnen und Auslandschweizern sowie eine Medieninhaltsanalyse bei 20 Tageszeitungen und 8 online Portalen mit 1923 codierten Artikeln. Zudem wurden administrative Daten über die Durchführung der Befragungen erhoben um damit Methodenforschung zu betreiben.

Thematische Forschung und Methodenforschung werden im Zentrum der Aktivitäten der Projektphase 2013 stehen. Ein call for papers für eine Sonderausgabe der Schweizerischen Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft wird lanciert werden. Um die internationale Sichtbarkeit zu erhöhen werden wir zudem ein Sonderband einer internationalen Zeitschrift vorschlagen mit dem Fokus auf die Effekte der institutionellen Varianz in der Schweiz auf das Wahlverhalten. Im Rahmen der ECPR General Conference in Bordeaux 2013 werden wir eine Sektion zu „Political elites in Electoral Democracies“ mit 5-8 panels und 15-30 papers organisieren, mit Ergebnissen aus verschiedene Kandidatenstudien aus Europa. Die Doktoranden werden zudem an ihren Doktorarbeiten und verschiedene papers arbeiten.

2013 werden auch verschieden vergleichende Datensätze produziert. So der kumulative Datensatz der alle verfügbaren Wahlnachbefragungen zwischen 1971 und 2011 erfasst sowie die Daten für die COST Action “The true European Voter” und die Schweizer Daten für die „Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES)“ und den „Comparative Candidate Survey (CCS)“.
Direct link to Lay Summary Last update: 10.12.2012

Lay Summary (English)

Lead
Selects is a research project embedded in different Swiss universities. The project started in 1995 to connect Swiss electoral research to the state of the art at the international level. The Selects project created a series of datasets around the national elections between 1995 and 2011. Each election year innovative new questions and additional data collections were incorporated. The data have been widely used for scientific research and several PhD theses have been written on Selects data.
Lay summary

Around the 2011 elections the Swiss Electoral Studies (Selects) produced various datasets which are all publically available for scientific research by 2012. Those datasets include a post-election telephone survey among 4391 Swiss citizens resident in Switzerland, a pre-election rolling cross section telephone survey (RCS) with 4001 interview, about 100 a day during 41 days before the election, an online/paper candidate survey of about 20 pages among all the 3547 candidates for the national council and the council of states, of which 1676 (47%) participated, an online survey among the Swiss living abroad with 1629 interviews as well as a media content analysis, covering 20 daily and weekly newspaper as well as 8 online news sites with 1923 coded articles. A large number of administrative data has also been collected which allows for methodological research.

Thematic and methodological research will be a central activity of the project phase 2013. A call for paper will be launched for a special issue of the Swiss political Science review on the 2011 elections. To increase the international visibility of the Select project, a special issue on the Swiss Elections 2011 will also be proposed to an international journal with a focus on the effects of the institutional variation of Swiss national elections on voting behaviour. A section proposal for the ECPR General Conference 2013 in Bordeaux “Political elites in Electoral Democracies” with 5-8 panels and 15-30 papers shall gather research around the comparative candidate survey project. The PhD students continue their PhD research and will work on several papers.

A second activity will be the preparation and of various secondary datasets. This includes an updated cumulative data set with all Swiss data on voting behaviour 1971- 2011, the data set for the COST Action “The true European Voter” project and the data files for the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) and the Comparative Candidate Survey (CCS).
Direct link to Lay Summary Last update: 10.12.2012

Responsible applicant and co-applicants

Employees

Publications

Publication
Are the Policy Preferences of Relatively Poor Citizens Under-represented in the Swiss Parliament?
Rosset Jan (2013), Are the Policy Preferences of Relatively Poor Citizens Under-represented in the Swiss Parliament?, in The Journal of Legislative Studies , 19(4), 490-504.
Coverage and nonresponse errors in an individual register frame based Swiss telephone election study
Lipps Oliver, Pekari Nicolas, Roberts Caroline (2013), Coverage and nonresponse errors in an individual register frame based Swiss telephone election study, in FORS Working papers, 1-23.
Direct Democracy: Protest Catalyst or Protest Alternative?
Freitag Markus, Fatke Matthias (2013), Direct Democracy: Protest Catalyst or Protest Alternative?, in Political Behavior, 35(2), 237-260.
Mode and incentive effects in an individual register frame based Swiss election study
Lipps Oliver, Pekari Niolas (2013), Mode and incentive effects in an individual register frame based Swiss election study, in FORS Working Papers, 1-25.
Representation in Context: Election Laws and Ideological Congruence Between Citizens and Governments
Powell Jr. Bingham G. (2013), Representation in Context: Election Laws and Ideological Congruence Between Citizens and Governments, in Perspectives on Politics, 11(1), 9-21.
Survey-Kompetenz für komplexe Anforderungen in der heutigen Markt- und Sozialforschung: der Masterstudiengang {«Public} Opinion and Survey Methodology»
Diaz-Bone Rainer, Lutz Georg (2013), Survey-Kompetenz für komplexe Anforderungen in der heutigen Markt- und Sozialforschung: der Masterstudiengang {«Public} Opinion and Survey Methodology», in Jahrbuch Marktforschung 2013, 16-18.
The Swiss Rolling Cross-Section Study: Design, field work, and data quality
Lutz Georg, De Rocchi Thomas, Pekari Nicolas (2013), The Swiss Rolling Cross-Section Study: Design, field work, and data quality, in FORS Working paper , 1-33.
Mind the gap: Do proportional electoral systems foster a more equal representation of women and men, poor and rich?
Bernauer Julian, Giger Nathalie, Rosset Jan, Mind the gap: Do proportional electoral systems foster a more equal representation of women and men, poor and rich?, in International Political Science Review, 1.

Scientific events

Active participation

Title Type of contribution Title of article or contribution Date Place Persons involved
Survey Progam Seminar Series Individual talk When do we lose our survey respondents? Modelling non-response step by step from a new sampling frame 13.05.2013 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA, United States of America Lutz Georg;
CPS Seminar Series Individual talk Political Participation and Equality: How Participatory Democracy Biases Representation 06.05.2013 Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, United States of America Lutz Georg;
Midwest Political Science Association Talk given at a conference How Majoritarian Elections in Multi-Member Districts Produce Proportional Outcomes 11.04.2013 Chicago, United States of America Lutz Georg;


Associated projects

Number Title Start Funding scheme
150999 Swiss Electoral Studies (Selects) 2014-2016 01.01.2014 Research Infrastructure
151001 SWISS HOUSEHOLD PANEL - 2014 - 2016 01.01.2014 Research Infrastructure
151007 Rapport social 2016 / Sozialbericht 2016 01.01.2014 Research Infrastructure
133957 Swiss Electoral Studies (Selects) 2011 01.01.2011 Research Infrastructure

Abstract

Around the 2011 elections the Swiss Electoral Studies (Selects) produced various datasets which are all publically available for scientific research by 2012. Those datasets include a post-election telephone survey among 4391 Swiss citizens resident in Switzerland, a pre-election rolling cross section telephone survey (RCS) with 4001 interview, about 100 a day during 41 days before the election, an online/paper candidate survey of about 20 pages among all the 3547 candidates for the national council and the council of states, of which 1676 (47%) participated, an online survey among the Swiss living abroad. with 1629 interviews, a small experimental online survey with an extra sample including 1500 addresses and 482 interviews as well as a media content analysis, covering 20 daily and weekly newspaper as well as 8 online news sites with 1923 coded articles. A large number of administrative data has also been collected which allows for methodological re-search. Selects had access to the new population register of the Federal Statistical Office for sam-pling. Therefore, for the RCS, the post-election survey as well as the experimental online survey key demographic information is available for the entire sample. For those studies, contact files (listing the outcome of each attempt to contact a person) and key stroke files (which measure the response time of each individual on each question) are also available. Thematic and methodological research will be a central activity of the project phase 2013. A call for paper will be launched for a special issue of the Swiss political Science review on the 2011 elections. To increase the international visibility of the Select project, a special issue on the Swiss Elections 2011 will also be proposed to an international journal with a focus on the effects of the institutional variation of Swiss national elections on voting behaviour. A section proposal for the ECPR General Conference 2013 in Bordeaux “Political elites in Electoral Democracies” with 5-8 panels and 15-30 papers shall gather research around the comparative candidate survey project (chaired by Hermann Schmitt, University of Manchester and Mannheim and Georg Lutz, FORS Lausanne). The PhD students continue their PhD research and will work on several papers outline below. In addition to the thematic research, a number of more methodologically oriented projects are on-going modelling non-response and the efficiency of the field work.A second activity will be the preparation and of various secondary datasets based on the already released data. This includes an updated cumulative data set with all Swiss data on voting behaviour 1971- 2011, the data set for the COST Action “The true European Voter” project and the data files for the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) and the Comparative Candidate Survey (CCS). In 2013 Selects will also submit a funding application for the 2014-2016 funding period which covers also the 2015 elections.
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