German Politician Responsiveness to Voters Without Term Limits

German Bundestag data measures politicians' direct interactions with voters to analyze responsiveness in a no-term-limit context. The dataset supports a study finding that politicians not seeking reelection become less responsive, especially near elections, due to decreased intra-party standing rather than changed motivation. It contrasts retirement types, showing consistent engagement for age/health retirees versus decreased engagement for those leaving due to party pressure or career changes.

Use Cases

• Testing theories of electoral incentives on politician-voter engagement
• Analyzing behavioral differences between retiring and career-changing politicians
• Replicating findings on intra-party standing's effect on responsiveness

Strengths

• Dataset is associated with a peer-reviewed research paper, providing methodological context
• Available under a permissive CC-BY-4.0 license for reuse
• Cross-platform presence on figshare indicates established sharing

Limitations

• Column names and exact row count are not provided, limiting immediate usability
• Dataset size (12.5 MB) suggests it may be a processed analysis dataset rather than raw source data

Provenance

Source

David Stadelmann

Collection Method

Likely compiled from records of direct interchanges between citizens and elected representatives in the German Bundestag.

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-21

Geography

Germany (German Bundestag)