With the formation of the Swiss Election Study (Selects) project, initially an association of the political science departments of the universities of Bern, Geneva and Zurich, the 1995 election constituted, in Peter Farago’s (1995) words, a “new start” in this respect, Since then, large-scale surveys have been carried out within the framework of the Selects project for the federal elections of 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019, ultimately resulting in not only a consolidation but also in a massive expansion of electoral research in Switzerland.
At the level of voters, Selects enables researchers to study participation, political opinions and voting intention/choice of Swiss citizens based on large-scale post-election surveys and panel surveys. On the candidates’ side, Selects conducts candidate surveys, studying issues such as factors of electoral success or the links between voters and elites. Finally, within the framework of media analyses, vast amounts of data on the election campaign in the mass media are collected in order to put individual opinion formation processes into their information context. In addition to these data, Selects also created a cumulative dataset, spanning from 1971 to 2019, which enables long-term comparisons between Swiss elections.
The Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) is an international network of national election studies. CSES develops questionnaire modules, which can be integrated into post-election voter surveys. The fifth round of the CSES module will be integrated into the 2019 Selects questionnaire, and Selects also participated in the four previous rounds.
Selects is also part of the well-established network Comparative Candidates Survey (CCS), which conducts surveys among all candidates for national elections in participating countries. Switzerland has conducted this additional survey in every election year since 2007.
- General planning and organising of the components of the survey;
- Sample drawing;
- Development of the questionnaires and specific survey methods;
- Translation of the questionnaires into three national languages (French, German and Italian);
- Cleaning, documentation and processing of the individual Selects data files and the longitudinal cumulative file;
- Editing and revising of scientific reports.
Commission
Members
- President: Prof. Dr. Isabelle Stadelmann-Steffen (University of Bern, Institute of Political Science)
- Prof. Dr. Romain Lachat (SciencesPo, Paris)
- Prof. Dr. Nathalie Giger (University of Geneva, Department of Political Science and International Relations)
- Prof. Dr. Silja Häusermann (University of Zurich, Department of Political Science)
- Prof. Dr. Georg Lutz (FORS, University of Lausanne)
- Prof. Dr. Anke Tresch (FORS, University of Lausanne)
- Dr. Lionel Marquis (University of Lausanne, Institute of Political, Historical and International Studies)
- Prof. Dr. Denise Traber (University of Basel, Department of Social Sciences)
- Dr. Thomas de Rocchi (Canton of St. Gallen, Political Rights Section)
- Prof. Dr. Pascal Sciarini (University of Geneva, Department of Political Science and International Relations)
- Madeleine Schneider (Federal Statistical Office)
- Prof. Dr. Alexander H. Trechsel (University of Lucerne, Department of Political Science)
Project Director
- Prof. Dr. Anke Tresch (FORS, University of Lausanne)
Sample construction
Voters’ side
Candidates’ side
Data collection
Voters’ side
Candidates' side
In addition, it should be noted that the various surveys are coordinated with each other. For example, questions related to attitudes towards certain political subjects are identical in the candidate survey and in the post-electoral survey, which makes it possible to compare the positions of candidates and citizens.
Voters’ side
Candidates’ side
The Swiss data that is provided to the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) is available via the CSES webpage.
Download data and documentation
Individual Studies
Cumulative dataset
You can search the bibliographic database for title and author:
You can also access the Zotero database for more complex search options and access to the abstracts.
If you have worked with Selects data and miss your publication in this list, or if you want to announce a new publication, please send the complete reference to ankedaniela.tresch@fors.unil.ch. Thank you for your collaboration.
Selects brochures
Selects Panel Survey 2019-2021
Selects 2019
Selects 2015
Selects 2011
Selects 2007
Other publications
The 2015 Swiss National Elections. Nathalie Giger, Line Rennwald and Anke Tresch (eds.) 2018. Swiss Political Science Review 24(4).
The (in)stability of voters’ perceptions of competence and associative issue ownership: The role of media coverage. Anke Tresch and Alexandra Feddersen (2018). Political Communication.
The 2011 Swiss Elections. Romain Lachat, Georg Lutz and Isabelle Stadelmann-Steffen (eds.). 2014. Swiss Political Science Review 20(4).
The Swiss National Elections 2007. Georg Lutz, Thomas Milic and Marco Steenbergen (eds.). 2010. Swiss Political Science Review 16(3).
Summary of the publication (in German)
Pourquoi la droite populiste progresse-t-elle à Genève? (Tribune de Genève, 15.11.2023)
The 2023 Swiss Federal Elections: Last Time’s Winners Lose and Losers Win (Who Governs Europe, 03.11.2023)
Mit der SVP wollen sie nichts zu tun haben – weshalb die ausscherenden Frauenparteien keine Überraschung sind (NZZ, 02.11.2023)
Wo sind all die Liberalen hin? (NZZ am Sonntag, 28.10.2023)
«Seuls contre tous» (Le Courrier, 24.10.2023)
Fédérales 2023: la victoire du parti «seul contre tous» (Le Nouvelliste, 24.10.2023)
Anke Tresch: “Das Bedürfnis nach Sicherheit wächst auch in der Schweiz” (swissinfo.ch, 23.10.2023)
Elezioni federali: “Anche in Svizzera cresce il bisogno di sicurezza” (swissinfo.ch, 23.10.2023)
«Le besoin de sécurité augmente aussi en Suisse» (swissinfo.ch, 23.10.2023)
Les élections ne changent in fine pas grand-chose (20minutes, 26.09.2023)
Signora Tresch, come riesce un partito a vincere le elezioni? (DeFacto, 21.09.2023)
Frau Tresch, wie wird eine Partei zur Wahlsiegerin? (DeFacto, 21.09.2023)
Madame Tresch, comment un parti devient-il victorieux aux élections ? (DeFacto, 21.09.2023)
Signora Rennwald, l’UDC è il partito dei lavoratori? (DeFacto, 05.09.2023)
Frau Rennwald, ist die SVP die Partei der Arbeiterschaft? (DeFacto, 05.09.2023)
Madame Rennwald, l’UDC est-elle le parti des travailleurs ? (DeFacto, 05.09.2023)
La chute de l’identification partisane en Suisse et ses conséquences pour les échéances électorales (Le Temps, 04.07.2023) (PDF)
