The Norwegian 1994 EU Referendum Study

The aim of "The Norwegian 1994 EU Referendum Study" was to study the Norwegian public EU opinion in a broad sense, i.e. to study electoral motives as well as elite participation through organizations such as "Nei til EU", "Europabevegelsen" and "Sosialdemokrater mot EU", as well as the media coverage of the EU issue. In addition, there was a goal to further develop research on referendums. Studies of the 1972 referendum indicated that social position (gender, age, place of residence, education, occupational affiliation and income) was of major importance for voters' views. In addition to the importance of social position, an emphasis was placed on cultural, ideological and political ties and loyalties in the study of the 1994 referendum. The main material for the project was interview data with about 3600 Norwegians. Each respondent was interviewed in advance of the election campaign, during the election campaign and after the vote. The survey was conducted on behalf of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology at the Department of Sociology and Political Science, and coordinated with the Nordic project "Referendum i Europas utkant".