Dynamics of Attitudes Towards Democracy and Participation in Contemporary Britain, 2000-2002

The project involved collecting and analysing a series of survey datasets concerned with the preparedness of British citizens to engage in different forms of political participation, and their attitudes towards democracy. The surveys also collected data in relation to variables that potentially explain people's propensities to engage in political participation. A pilot survey, which tested out the draft questionnaire, was conducted in April 2000. The main data collection involved administering the same questionnaire each month to a representative sample of the UK electorate, over the period July 2000 to December 2002.<br> <br> A sample of around 1000 respondents were interviewed by The Gallup Organization Ltd. for most months between July 2000 and December 2002. Interviews were conducted by telephone using Random Digit Dialling. The results were weighted by Gallup to conform to the demographic profile of the UK population. Financial constraints meant that in some months no survey was conducted. In other months, only around 500 respondents were interviewed. The numbers of respondents per month are clearly defined inside the dataset.