Databases
This page offers a selection of easily accessible data sets and databases that either were created at the WZB or significantly benefited from the Center’s contributions. The page will continue to be expanded and updated.
Please address any questions regarding the data to WZB's research data management team: dm.service [at] wzb.eu
Democracy Barometer
The Democracy Barometer measures the quality of 75 democracies worldwide and studies how democracy has developed and functioned with regard to freedom, equality and control since 1990. The data is available for free download; individual data sets can be created.
WZB contact person: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Merkel
German Longitudinal Election Study (2009–2017)
This long-term study of three consecutive federal elections (in 2009, 2013 and 2017) seeks to examine the behavior of voters, as well as the context in which they make their decisions (parties, candidates, election campaign, mass media). Horizontal and longitudinal surveys are combined with a survey about the candidates, as well as analyses of TV debates and media coverage. The data sets are available for free download; use of the candidates survey requires agreeing to the user regulations.
WZB contact person: Dr. Bernhard Weßels
European Election Study 2009
For the first time, extensive information about the 2009 European Parliament elections has been compiled in a single databank that includes the attitudes and political behavior of more than 27,000 citizens in 27 countries; the election campaign strategies and key issues of 1,350 candidates from 200 parties; the election programs of 200 parties; and campaign media coverage. Data from the WZB-coordinated study of the candidates (ZA5048) can be accessed at the GESIS website or at the following link – after first agreeing to the terms of use.
WZB contact person: PD Dr. Bernhard Weßels
European Commission Database (1958-2018)
The database provides an overview of the European Commission’s historical development. It sheds light on the link between personal characteristics of high ranking EU representatives (party political affiliation, professional and national background), internal competencies and responsibilities as well as policy decisions of the different portfolios. Information covers Commissioners, Directors-General and the administrative structure of the European Commission from 1958 to 2018.
Intergenerational Policies in Europe (Multilinks)
The Multilinks database documents how European countries define, regulate and support responsibilities between generations. It offers detailed information about childcare, family-friendly policies, long-term care, pensions and the responsibility to provide financial support in the 27 member states of the European Union, as well as in Georgia, Norway and Russia. More than 70 indicators for social policies are provided for the years 2004 and 2009.
Manifesto Project
The Manifesto Project studies political party preferences in more than 50 countries worldwide by means of quantitative content analyses of the parties’ election programs, which permits comparisons of the quality of political party representation in parliamentarian, semi-presidential and presidential systems. The provided Manifesto Project Dataset for the analysis of the policy preferences covers over 1000 parties from 1945 until today. The projects main dataset is updated twice a year. It provides instant access to manifesto texts and content-analytical data and gives accessible ways to easily explore and visualise the data and text corpus.
WZB contact person: Dr. Pola Lehmann
National Educational Panel Study (NEPS)
The National Educational Panel Study aims to gather data regarding the development of individual education and competence development and their interaction with learning environments, social inequality, migration and educational outcomes over the course of a lifetime. To analyse these topics, the Educational Panel will survey approximately 60.000 children, adolescents and adults per year, who are distributed across eight educational stages: 1) early childhood Education, 2) kindergarten, 3) elementary school, 4) lower secondary school, 5) upper secondary school, 6) vocational training, 7) higher education and 8) adult education.
WZB contact person: Prof. Dr. Martin Ehlert
WZB research group's Website
PolDem Database
The Observatory for Political Conflict and Democracy (PolDem) is a platform that produces and houses data on protest events, election campaigns, and issue-specific public contestation covering a wide-range of European countries over a long period of time. The platform developed as an extension of previous as well as ongoing projects by the principal investigators Hanspeter Kriesi at the European University Institute, and Edgar Grande and Swen Hutter at the Center for Civil Society Research, a joint initiative by the WZB Social Science Center and Freie Universität Berlin.
PPEG Database
The PPEG Database contains information on political parties, presidents, elections, and governments around the world. It brings together a range of datasets produced by the department "Democracy & Democratization" of the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive resource of election and government information for research, education, and policy-making. The current version of the database covers information from 72 countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe between 1945 and 2021 including data on 3.030 political parties, 1.011 parliamentary elections, 338 presidential elections, and 1.881 cabinets.
Protestdatabase PRODAT
The database records protest events in the German Federal Republic. It is based on a random sample of reporting in the Frankfurter Rundschau and the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Currently, a dataset suitable for analysis is available for the period from 1950 to 2002. From 1989 onwards, it includes protests in the GDR respectively in the New Federal States.
Think-Tank-Database
The databank-based website documents networks of policy-related research and consulting institutes in Europe, as well as institutes for the marketing of ideas, and political advocacy and opinion making. Information about individuals, financing, publications, events and other activities will also be compiled and documented. The website offers expanded analyses, graphic depictions and research tools.
WZB contact: Dr. Dieter Plehwe