GLES Tracking April 2023, T54

The German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) is the central infrastructure project in Germany for the continuous collection and provision of high-quality data for national and international election research. The methodologically diverse surveys of the GLES enable the research of political attitudes and behavior of voters and candidates. Since its foundation, the GLES has been conducted in close cooperation between the German Society for Electoral Research (DGfW) and GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences.

The GLES tracking (formerly: long-term online tracking) consists of cross-sectional surveys with about 1,000 respondents each, which have been conducted at regular intervals since 2009. Four online surveys (CAWI) were implemented per year between 2009-2017 and three per year starting in 2018. The sample is based on quota selection from an online access panel. The questionnaire contains core questions on major political and social issues, module questions, and questions on current political events. In addition, between 2009 and 2017, researchers were able to implement their own questions through Call for Questions. The GLES Tracking allows the analysis of short-term changes. On the occasion of state elections, supplementary surveys were conducted simultaneously to the regular tracking between 2009 and 2017.

The GLES Tracking questionnaire includes questions on voting intention and voting decision, party identification, political involvement, political attitudes, problem perception, evaluation of political actors, political media use, party contacts, coalition preferences, reception of TV duels, sociodemographics, personality traits, and positional cues. In addition, GLES Tracking April 2023, T54 includes a more differentiated question regarding the issue dimension tradition vs. diversity and questions on a general ban on abortion, voting over the age of 16, sexual orientation, war in Ukraine, and issue dimension tradition vs. diversity.