European Parliament Election Study 2009, Candidate Study - Full Version

European Election Study 2009:

Attitudes towards political issues, value orientations, political
background and experience of candidates for the EU-Parliament.
Political career.

Topics: Party ID: Party membership, year of ascendance, EP party
group.

Engagement and mobilization: Date of nomination; start of campaign and
full-time campaigning; time exposure for campaigning by instrument
(candidate and team); policy issues emphasized in campaign; focus of
campaign (personal qualifications, local points of view, party’s
election program and specific issues); amount of campaign budget; size
of campaign team; aim of campaign (personalised vs. party campaign).

Media Usage: Usage of campaign instruments; importance of media for
election.

Institutions: Attitude towards European Institutions; attitudes
towards the power of the EP; satisfaction with the democracy in one`s
own country and EU.

EU integration: European identity (scale); attitude towards country
membership in the EU; attitude towards enlargement and towards
deepening; candidate’s and party’s position towards European
unification; decisions by EU in the interest of respondent`s country.

Value orientations: Self-assessment on a left-right continuum; views
on political issues.

Domestic and European issues: Most important issues; actual level
dealing with the most important issues; appropriate level to deal with
most important issues; appropriate level to deal with different policy
areas.

Representation: Importance of the representation of selected groups in
the European Parliament (complete population in Europe, national
population, the own party voters, population in the region, national
party, the own European parliament group, women, elderly people,
workers, young ones, disadvantaged people, minorities).

Identity: Attitudes towards European identity.

Demographics: Sex; age (year of birth); country of origin, present
nationality and at the time of birth; country of origin of mother and
father; identification with one`s own nationality, another group or
both; marital status; highest school-leaving qualification (ISCED);
present employment situation as well as immediate before the election
with a full time mandate; occupational sector; self-assessment of
social class; duration of living at the place of residence;
denomination; church attendance; self-assessment of religiousness;
assessment of the standard of living in the family of the origin.

Recruitment and nomination of candidate: Encouragement to stand;
nomination (level); who has nominated the candidate; alternatives for
nomination; importance of certain groups supporting the candidate in
the nomination process; political experience; membership; career
aspiration.