COSPAL-COmparative Study or PArty Leaders

Data on the selection of political party leaders is made available by the COSPAL project (Comparative Study of Party Leaders) coordinated by Jean-Benoit Pilet (Université libre de Bruxelles) and William Cross (Carleton University Ottawa). The dataset covers 14 countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Norway, and the United Kingdom) over the period 1965-2019. It contains detailed data on the rules organization the selection of political party leaders, on the sociodemographic and political characteristics of party leaders and on leadership races. The dataset includes over 3,500 total observations with details on more than 100 political parties, almost 600 party leaders, and over 1,000 leadership races.