The Comparative Legilators Database on BJPS

A new scientific publication has introduced the Comparative Legislators Database (CLD), a groundbreaking resource that aims to improve understanding of political representatives’ behavior. With information on over 45,000 contemporary and historical politicians from ten countries, the CLD brings together micro-data collection efforts from open-collaboration platforms and other sources, integrating with renowned political science datasets.

Providing political, sociodemographic, career, online presence, public attention, and visual information, the CLD offers a straightforward and open-source interface through an R package. This allows for targeted, fast and analysis-ready access to data that is familiar to social scientists and standardized across time and space.

The CLD is a valuable resource for researchers investigating legislative elites, supporting individual-level comparative research over long periods.

This innovative database will provide a central hub for versatile information about legislators and their behavior, helping to advance the understanding of politics and policy-making processes.