Weimar Triangle Voting Alignment in the EU Council

Replication data for a study on voting cohesion among France, Germany, and Poland (the Weimar Triangle) in the Council of the European Union. The dataset, created by researcher Adam Kirpsza, was last updated in April 2026 and is stored in a DTA (Stata) file format.

Use Cases

• Analyze trends in voting alignment (e.g., `vote_match_rate` or `cohesion_score`) among the three countries over time using a `date` or `year` column.
• Model the likelihood of a country (e.g., `country` column) dissenting from the Weimar Triangle group based on policy area (e.g., `policy_field` or `agenda_item`).
• Compare the Weimar Triangle's internal cohesion against other regional blocs using derived metrics like `alignment_index` or `roll_call_vote` data.
• Investigate correlations between national political events (potentially inferred from `session_id` or `meeting_date`) and shifts in voting alignment for specific members.

Strengths

• Dataset is explicitly provided as replication data, supporting research transparency and reproducibility.
• Published under a permissive CC-BY-4.0 license, allowing for broad academic and commercial use.
• File size of 1.5 MB indicates a structured, manageable dataset suitable for standard statistical analysis.

Limitations

• The dataset is small at 1.5 MB, suggesting a limited number of observations or variables, which may constrain complex modeling.
• Without access to column names, the specific features and granularity of the voting data are unknown, limiting immediate utility.
• Temporal coverage and the exact number of rows are unspecified, making it difficult to assess the study's time span and sample size.

Provenance

Source

Adam Kirpsza, likely affiliated with an academic or research institution.

Collection Method

Presumably compiled from official EU Council voting records and documents for a specific research paper.

Freshness

Last updated in April 2026, indicating recent maintenance or versioning.

Geography

European Union, specifically focusing on France, Germany, and Poland (Weimar Triangle).