The Global Party Survey uses an expert survey to document how political parties worldwide differ in their ideological values, policy positions, and rhetoric. The independent academic research project, based at Harvard University, generates a party-level dataset widely used within the academic and policy research communities

GPS-2019

The first survey dataset, GPS-2019, covered 1,043 political parties in 163 countries drawing upon estimates from 1,861 experts. This dataset, released via Harvard’s Dataverse in February 2020, has now been downloaded over 27,000 times and used in a wide range of publications.

GPS-2023

To monitor party stability and change since the first study, the second survey, GPS-2023, has been launched in early-2023. Participation, by invitation only, will replicate many of the items included in the first study but also add some new items designed to monitor party positions towards democracy and authoritarianism.

survey administration

The studies are directed by Professor Pippa Norris, a widely-cited comparative political scientist at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, assisted by project research assistants. The research has been generously funded by a grant from the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University.