Abstract

This research note introduces the 2024 Chapel Hill Expert Survey (CHES) on party positioning in Europe. When combined with earlier waves of CHES data, this new data set provides estimates of the ideological and policy positions of political parties over twenty-five years of European politics, 1999–2024.

The note demonstrates the value of the time series by examining two important trends in European politics: potential changes in the economic left-right positioning of radical right parties, and the emergence of a transnational cleavage composed of European integration and immigration.

The note further explores two new items in the 2024 survey designed to measure horizontal accountability: party positioning on executive constraints and judicial independence.

This illustrates the value of CHES EU data on party positioning both over time and through innovations in the seventh and most recent survey.