Comparative Political Data Set

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.