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The "Comparative Political Data Set" (CPDS) is a collection of political and institutional country-level data provided by Klaus Armingeon, Sarah Engler and Lucas Leemann at the University of Zurich (Switzerland) and the Leuphana Universität (Germany). It consists of annual data for 36 democratic countries for the period of 1960 to 2020 or since their transition to democracy.

The present data set combines and replaces the earlier versions “Comparative Political Data Set I” (data for 23 OECD countries from 1960 onwards) and the “Comparative Political Data Set III” (data for 36 OECD and/or EU member states from 1990 onwards). A variable has been added to identify former CPDS I countries.

In addition, the "Supplement to the Comparative Political Data Set – Government Composition 1960-2020" provides detailed information on party composition, reshuffles, duration, reason for termination and the type of government for 36 OECD and/or EU-member countries.

The data set contains some additional economic, socio-economic and demographic variables. However, these variables are not the major concern of the project and are thus limited in scope. For more in-depth sources of these data, see the online databases of the OECD, Eurostat or AMECO. The CPDS is suited for cross-national, longitudinal and pooled time-series analyses.

 

News / latest updates

>>> September 2022 | New update: CPDS country-year 2020 available

>>> September 2022 | New update: CPDS by government country-year 2020 and new Do- as well as R-Files

 

Citation (please refer to the respective data set as follows)

Armingeon, Klaus, Sarah Engler and Lucas Leemann. 2022.
Comparative Political Data Set 1960-2020.
Zurich: Department of Political Science, University of Zurich.

Armingeon, Klaus, Sarah Engler and Lucas Leemann. 2022.
Supplement to the Comparative Political Data Set – Government Composition 1960-2020.
Zurich: Department of Political Science, University of Zurich.

 

Coverage

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom & USA: 1960-2020

Greece: 1960-1967, 1974-2020

Malta: 1966-2020

Portugal & Cyprus: 1976-2020

Spain: 1977-2020

Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania & Slovakia: 1990-2020

Poland: 1991-2020

Estonia & Lithuania: 1992-2020

Latvia & Slovenia: 1993-2020

Croatia: 2000-2020