The GPS study collaborates with CHES, the Chapel Hill expert surveys, which estimate party positioning on European integration, ideology and policy issues for national parties in a variety of European countries.
The first CHES survey was conducted in 1999, with subsequent waves in 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014. The number of countries increased from 14 Western European countries in 1999 to 31 countries in 2014. In this time, the number of national parties grew from 143 to 268.
The 2014 survey includes all EU member states, plus parties in Norway, Switzerland, and Turkey. Separate surveys were conducted in the Balkan candidate countries.
Questions on parties' general position on European integration, several EU policies, general left/right, economic left/right, and social left/right are common to all surveys. More recent surveys also contain questions on non-EU policy issues, such as immigration, redistribution, decentralization, and environmental policy.
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