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About the CSPP

The CSPP applies ideas from the social sciences to major problems of government by combining quantitative, qualitative and institutional methods drawn from political science, sociology, economics and related disciplines. Founded in 1976 by Professor Richard Rose, it was the first public policy centre within a European university background.

The CSPP specializes in comparative research across Europe and the wider OECD world. Its fields of specialization include the growth of government; social welfare; elections and democratization; and social capital and health. After the fall of the Berlin Wall the CSPP launched an innovative programme of Barometer surveys to understand mass response to transformation in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Its 110 New Europe Barometer surveys have covered a wide range of political, economic and social attitudes and behaviour.

The enlarged European Union is studied from the bottom up in order to understand the extent to which the policy concerns of Europeans primarily reflect individual characteristics such as age, income and education or of national institutions and cultures. The CSPP is also actively engaged in comparing EU societies with countries seeking enlargement or on its borders, especially Turkey, Croatia, and Ukraine.


Funding comes from national institutions such as the British ESRC and the Nuffield Foundation and from scientific agencies and foundations in Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Sweden and the United States and intergovernmental agencies of the European Commission, the United Nations and the World Bank.

The results of the Centre's research are published in: its series of Studies in Public Policy; peer-reviewed social science journals; public affairs periodicals; books; and in Russian and German. Reports are presented to policymaking agencies such as the World Bank, OECD, the European Commission, UN agencies and in seminars across Europe, the United States and further afield. In addition to its home website it also maintains www.RussiaVotes.org and www.BalticVoices.org.



CSPP School of Government & Public Policy U. of Strathclyde Glasgow G1 1XQ Scotland
Email: cspp@strath.ac.uk