PAE-2025 (Politically-Administrative Elite 2025)
Project Overview
PAE is a recurring survey—first launched in the 1970s—of senior civil servants in Germany. It gathers insights into their working conditions, politicization, and role perceptions, as well as on their socio-professional profiles. Because similar surveys are carried out regularly in other democracies, PAE also provides a foundation for international comparative research.
All PAE data are analysed in an anonymized and aggregated form only, enabling answers to a wide range of public administration research questions. Most notably, this allows development trends in the German administration to be traced over time.
About the project
The “Political-Administrative Elite” (PAE) continues a survey begun in 1972 under the Comparative Elite Study (CES). At first, only top civil servants in federal ministries were surveyed; starting with PAE-2013 the target group was extended to include top civil servants in state ministries, governmental research agencies and other federal authorities. In 2025, management staff in public enterprises and in the indirect federal administration will be surveyed for the first time.
Since 2005, PAE has been conducted as an online survey just before each election of the German Federal Parliament—initially led by Dr. Falk Ebinger and, since 2017, by a larger team of researchers from several universities. Together with earlier waves, this creates an increasingly valuable empirical resource.
The project is led by Prof. Dr. Sylvia Veit (Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg), Prof. Dr. Marian Döhler (Leibniz-University Hannover), Prof. Dr. Tanja Klenk (Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg) and Prof. Dr. Ulf Papenfuß (Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen). The project team also includes Freya Brockstedt, Nina Felgendreher and Jasmin Beneke as research associates.
Letzte Änderung: 15. May 2025