Part I: Introduction 1: Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck, Sigrid Roßteutscher, Harald Schoen, Bernhard Weßels, and Christof Wolf: A New Era of Electoral Instability Part II: A Fragmenting Party System 2: Martin Elff and Sigrid Roßteutscher: All gone? Change and Persistence in the Impact of Social Cleavages on Voting Behavior in Germany since 1949 3: Bernhard Weßels: Leaving the Space - Opening the Gap? Electoral Effects of Parties' and Voters' Repositioning 4: Lars-Christopher Stövsand, Melanie Dietz, Sigrid Roßteutscher, and Philipp Scherer: Issue Salience and Vote Choice: A Cultural Turn? 5: Lea Gärtner, Harald Schoen, and Alexander Wuttke: Ties That No Longer Bind? Effects and Responsiveness of Party Attachments in a Period of Crises Part III: Challenged Voters 6: Aiko Wagner and Josephine Lichteblau: A New Player in the Game: Changing Electoral Competition in Germany 7: Simon Ellerbrock: Partisan Agreement and Disagreement in Voters' Discussant Networks: Contextual Constraints and Partisan Selectivity in a Changing Electorate 8: Reinhold Melcher: (In-)Consistent Voting in the 2009, 2013 and 2017 German Federal Elections 9: Sascha Huber and Robert Welz: Dynamics of Coalition Preferences and Vote Choices Part IV: Situational Voting 10: Agatha Kratz, Maria Preißinger, and Harald Schoen: Changing Crises, Changing Votes? Problem Priorities, Party Competence, and Electoral Behavior in Germany, 2009-2017 11: Nils Jungmann, Ina Bieber, Manuela Blumenberg, and Konstantin Glinitzer: The Push and Pull of Political Leaders: Changing Candidate Evaluations and Vote Switching between the 2013 and 2017 Federal Elections 12: Jürgen Maier, Michaela Maier, and Thorsten Faas: Do Televised Debates Affect Voting Behavior? Evidence from the 2009, 2013, and 2017 German Federal Elections 13: Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck and Alexander Staudt: Media Biases and Voter Attitudes during the 2009, 2013, and 2017 Federal Election Campaigns 14: Julia Partheymüller and Richard Johnston: Plus ça Change? Stability amid Volatility in German Campaigns Part V: Conclusion 15: Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck, Sigrid Roßteutscher, Harald Schoen, Bernhard Weßels, and Christof Wolf: The Changing German Voter

Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck is a Professor of Political Science and Political Sociology at the University of Mannheim. Previously he held positions as a Professor of Political Communication at the University of Duisburg-Essen and as a Scientific Director at the Center for Survey Research and Methodology Mannheim (ZUMA). From 2007 to 2019 he was founding chairperson of the German Society for Electoral Research (DGfW). At the 2009, 2013 and 2017 German Federal Elections he has served as a co-Principal Investigator of the German national election study GLES (German Longitudinal Election Study). His research appeared in journals like the British Journal of Political Science, European Journal of Political Research, Political Communication, Electoral Studies and Party Politics, and with publishers like Oxford University Press and Routledge. Sigrid Roßteutscher is Professor at the department of Social Sciences, Goethe-University Frankfurt. Since 2009 she was a Co-Director of the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES). At present, she is chairperson of the German Society for Electoral Research (DGfW). Her research interests focus on political participation, electoral behavior, turnout, political inequality, the role of religion in politics, value orientations, and social capital. She published in journals like the European Journal of Political Research, West European Politics, American Behavioral Scientist, European Sociological Review, Political Studies, and with publishers like Oxford University Press and Routledge. Harald Schoen is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Mannheim. He served as co-Principal Investigator of the German national election study GLES. His research focuses on political behavior and political psychology. It has been published in journals like the American Political Science Review, British Journal of Political Science, European Journal of Political Research, Journal of Communication, Political Behavior, Political Psychology, and Public Opinion Quarterly, and with publishers like Oxford University Press. Bernhard Weßels is Acting Director of the research unit 'Democracy and Democatization' at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, and Professor of Political Science at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. He served as a member of the planning committee of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) for 14 years, directed the German CSES-Studies since 1998, and was a co-principal investigator of the German national election study GLES. He has published widely in the fields of political behavior, elections, and political representation. Christof Wolf is President of GESIS Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences, and Professor of Sociology at the University of Mannheim. He decisively supported the long-term institutionalization inter alia of the German Longitudinal Election Study and the European Social Survey in Germany; he also served on the boards of the International Social Survey Programme and the European Values Study. His research focuses on questions of survey methodology and social stratification. He edited several handbooks and published in journals, most recently in Public Opinion Quarterly, Comparative Population Studies and Journal of Marriage and Family.

The most comprehensive study of German electoral behavior, covering a wide range of aspects of the electoral process Offers unprecedented insights into the micro-mechanisms of electoral behavior (not only in Germany, but also internationally) Utilizes a unique database that has been compiled by one of largest and most complex election studies of the world Provides theoretical focus not only on voters, but on the interaction between voters and parties as well as media An open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence