Introduction to The
Comparative Study of
Electoral Systems
Jessica Fortin
GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
jessica.fortin@gesis.org
David Howell
University of Michigan
dahowell@umich.edu
APSA Short Course “New Opportunities, New
Challenges: The CSES & EES Data Sets”
Toronto, Canada - September 2, 2009
Project Overview
The CSES Project in Brief
• CSES is designed to study variations in electoral
systems (and other political institutions)
• A CSES Module is a 10-15 minute respondent
questionnaire with a specific substantive theme
• The CSES Module is included in national postelection surveys around the world
• Each Module last approximately five years
Process
1. A Planning Committee, comprised of, selected
by, and informed by collaborators, designs and
oversees each Module
Module 3 Planning Committee
Ian McAllister (chair)
Australia
Marta Lagos
Chile
Bernt Aardal
Norway
Radoslaw Markowski
Poland
Kees Aarts
Netherlands
Ekkehard Mochmann
Germany
John Aldrich
USA
Hans Rattinger
Germany
Ulises Beltrán
Mexico
Hermann Schmitt
Germany
André Blais
Canada
Michal Shamir
Israel
Yun-Han Chu
Taiwan
Sandeep Shastri
India
Juan Díez-Nicolás
Spain
Gábor Tóka
Hungary
David A. Howell
USA
Jack Vowles
Great Britain
Ken’ichi Ikeda
Japan
Bernhard Weßels
Germany
Process
2. After the Planning Committee selects a theme
for a Module, a stimulus paper is written
3. The full Planning Committee uses the stimulus
paper to guide development of a questionnaire
for the Module
4. After the questionnaire is finalized, collaborators
raise funds locally and run the questionnaire in
their country in a post-election survey
Coverage: Module 1
Coverage: Modules 1 and 2
Module 3 Collaborators
Process
4. Collaborators deposit data, documentation and
reports with the CSES Secretariat
5. The Secretariat processes and merges the items
into a single data file for comparative study
—Survey data is merged with administrative,
demographic, district, and macro variables
—Micro-macro comparisons (individual behavior
within institutional context) make CSES
especially unique
Data Availability
— Free, public access without embargo
— Available from CSES website:
www.cses.org
— Can be read into SAS, SPSS, STATA, etc.
— Also archived at GESIS, ICPSR, and many other
locations (for example, university libraries)
Website (www.cses.org)
• Our primary method of communication with our
user community
• Receives 6,000 page requests monthly
• Over 7,500 registrations from 134 countries to
download data since September 2002
• Many resources in addition to data:
announcements, governance, workshop papers,
bibliography
Election Study Quality
Election Study Quality
Included election studies must meet Aspired to
Standards for Data Quality and Comparability
(CSES Planning Committee, 1996)
Mode of Interviewing
...face-to-face preferred
...other methods only if quality warrants it
Face-to-face
Mail/self-completion
Telephone
Mixed
Module 1 Module 2
70%
71%
15%
10%
5%
7%
10%
12%
Timing of Interviewing
…as soon as possible after the election
Module 1:
• 82% of data collections completed within three
months after election day
Module 2:
• 71% of data collections completed within three
months after election day
Placement of Module
…CSES Module must be entirely in post-election
…single, uninterrupted block of questions
…collaborator chooses appropriate location (in
post-election study)
Module 1:
• 24 of 34 election studies (for which such
information is available) administered CSES
Module 1 as an uninterrupted block of questions
Sampling Procedures
…national sample from all age-eligible citizens
—With adequate coverage
…random sampling procedures at all stages
…detailed documentation of sampling procedures
Sample Size
…recommend no fewer than 1,000 interviews
Module 1:
• Average of 1,600 interviews per election study
Module 2:
• Average of 1,567 interviews per election study
Field Practices
…collaborators should pre-test their instrument
…interviewers should be trained in its
administration
…make every effort to achieve high response rate
…practice refusal conversion
…provide data on contacts, attempts, etc.
Translation
…should back-translate and compare
…collaborate on translation with others
Module 3 Design Report (borrowed from the ISSP):
• Who translated the questionnaire?
• Was the translation checked or evaluated?
• Was the translated questionnaire pre-tested?
• What problems were there in doing the
translation?
Dataset and Documentation
Quality
Dataset Quality
Quality doesn’t end after the data is collected…
• Collaborators clean to their national standard
• Secretariat
—reviews and cleans it anew
—reconciles against other data sources
—does cross-national comparisons
—replicates known analytical models
—monitors uses of data and acts on issues
reported by users
Documentation Quality
• CSES philosophy (like the ESS): the
imperfections of a study should not be hidden,
but highlighted
—Enhances credibility of project
—Improves the quality of resulting analyses
—Allows proper comparisons using the data
• Codebook notes anything we know of that has a
possible impact on quality, comparability, or
analytical outcomes
Documentation Quality
• Original collaborator documents are also made
available for public download:
—Original language questionnaires
—English language questionnaire translations
—Macro report
—Sample design and data collection
(methodology) report
Substantive Themes
Current Data Releases
• Module 1 (1996-2001)
—July 2002 Full Release:
39 election studies, 33 countries
• Module 2 (2001-2006)
—June 2007 Full Release:
41 election studies, 38 countries
• Module 3 (2006-2011)
—Advance Release is forthcoming
Module 1:
Performance of the System
Module 1: Performance of the System
1) The impact of constitutional and electoral
systems on democratic performance:
• Parliamentary versus presidential systems
• Electoral rules
• Political parties
• 2) The importance of social cleavages
Module 1: Performance of the System, continued
3) Attitudes toward parties, political institutions,
and the democratic process generally:
• Institutional variation and dimensions of
democratic support
• Performance of democratic institutions and
support for democracy
Module 1: Performance of the System, continued
Two sets of questions at the micro level address
the substantive theme
• 3 questions evaluate the electoral process.
• 5 questions target the evaluations of the
responsiveness of representatives, the
performance of political parties and democracy in
general.
Module 2:
Accountability, Representation
Module 2: Accountability, Representation
1) Elections as accountability versus elections as
representation
• which is more desirable in a democracy?
• what makes voter feel more integrated:
proportionality or disproportionality?
2) voter engagement and electoral participation
• Under which conditions are citizens more
engaged in their systems?
Module 2: Accountability, Representation ,
continued
3) The relationship between institutional context
and voter choice
• Broader coverage
• electoral institutional and socio-political-economic
context on one side and public opinion, voter
choice and behavior on the other in new
democracies
Module 2: Accountability, Representation ,
continued
A sets of questions at the micro level address the
substantive theme
• 5 questions on political participation
• 2 questions on campaign involvement
• Additional questions about
democracy/corruption/fairness
• Questions if voter’s views are represented
• Important issues/ Performance
• Previous vote choice
Module 3:
Electoral Choices
Module 3: Electoral Choices
1) The Electoral Choice Set
• How do choices affect electoral decisions?
• How do supply patterns influence choice?
2) Dimensions of Choice
• Retrospective, prospective
• Ideology
• Performance evaluations
Module 3: Electoral Choices, continued
3) What happens if choices are not meaningful?
• Decline in electoral participation
• New parties might alter the choice set
• Public support may decline
Module 3: Electoral Choices, continued
A sets of questions at the micro level address the
substantive theme
•
•
•
•
Egocentric and Sociotropic issues/performance
Like/dislike leaders
Difference choice options
Consideration voting for others / or parties
respondents would never vote for
Module 4: Proposal Titles
The list of proposal titles is:
•
•
•
•
•
•
The micro-political foundations of social protest in
democracies
Election interpretation
The political economy of electoral systems
The behavioral foundations of social politics
Voter mobilization and the professionalization of
campaigns Elections and the formation of governments
Political knowledge
CSES as a Research Resource
...Most common dependent variables across
modules
• Economic voting
• Voter turnout
• Citizen Engagement/ Efficacy
• Satisfaction with Democracy
• Government accountability
• Party Systems/ Cleavages
• Choice parameters
Introduction to The
Comparative Study of
Electoral Systems
Jessica Fortin
GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
jessica.fortin@gesis.org
David Howell
University of Michigan
dahowell@umich.edu
APSA Short Course “New Opportunities, New
Challenges: The CSES & EES Data Sets”
Toronto, Canada - September 2, 2009