In May 1987, the ESF Standing Committee for the Social Sciences sponsored a Conference on Political Science Research in Europe held at the European University Institute to discuss the research priorities in political science.
The research topic of Beliefs in Government was prominent amongst the recommendations. The Standing Committee for the Social Sciences decided to hold an exploratory workshop and a final proposal was prepared.
The 1988 Assembly approved the launching of this new scientific programme for a 5 year period (1989-1993).

The programme studies the structure of, and changes in, the orientation of Western European States towards their liberal-democratic modes of government. The programme will focus upon the work of 4 linked sub-groups: Attitudes Towards Democratic Politics, The Internationalisation of Government, The Scope of Government, The Impact of Values.

This programme was the first case of a comparative European research study that relied entirely on secondary analysis of data collected on the national level on public attitudes to government.