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The newly collected “Potsdam Grievance Statistics File” (PGSF) holds data on the number and topics of grievances (“Eingaben”) that were addressed to local authorities of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the years 1970 to 1989. The PGSF allows quantitative analyses on topics such as participation, quality of life, and value change in the German Democratic Republic. This paper introduces the concepts of the data set and discusses the validity of its contents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the potential for an alteration in turnout changing an election result, after taking into account the offices at stake, the electoral system, prior turnout, the number of parties competing, the division of the prior vote and the gap between the leader and second-place party. A review of electoral processes in 29 European countries plus the United States finds that even if an increase in turnout altered the distribution of the national vote, this of itself is insufficient to alter an election result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]