Danish Election Studies, Continuity File 1971-1981

The survey is a merged version of the recurring questions in a number of election studies. The election studies which form the basis of this survey are seven studies which were carried out in the period 1971-1981. The first two studies are found in DDA-0007: 'Danish Pre- and Post-Election Study 1971', which is a two-wave panel study concerning the general election on 21 September, 1971. The first wave dates from August 1971, before the writs of the election were issued. The second wave dates from October 1971. A subsample of the respondents who were interviewed in these two waves was interviewed again after the general election on 4 December, 1973, and the results of these interviews are found in DDA-0008: 'Danish Election Study 1973', which forms the third wave of the above-mentioned panel study. DDA-0016: 'Danish Election Study 1975' was carried out in connection with the general election on 9 January, 1975. Some of the questions in this study are replications of questions in the 1971 and 1973 studies, but the respondents are not the same. The same applies to DDA-0166: 'Danish Election Study 1977', which was carried out in connection with the general election on 15 February, 1977 and to DDA-0287: 'Danish Election Study 1979', which was carried out in October and November 1979. However, as regards DDA-0287 the data were collected in two omnibuses: one of the omnibus surveys was carried out in October 1979, immediately after the general election on 23 October, whereas the other one was carried out in November. DDA-0529: 'Danish Election Study 1981' was carried out in December 1981, immediately after the general election on 8 December (also with a new survey population). #Thus, 'Danish Election Studies, Continuity File 1971-1981' consists of seven part-studies carried out between August 1971 and December 1981; however, as the 'Danish Election Study 1979' consists of two omnibuses, there are actually eight part-studies. By and large, the variables are recurring variables, i.e. they occur in all the studies, but in a few cases variables have been included which do not occur in all the studies. Furthermore, some variables have been transferred from the Pre-Election Study 1971 to the Post-Election Study 1971 as well as to the 'Danish Election Study 1973', or variables have been transferred from the Post-Election Study 1971 to the Pre-Election Study 1971 (a thing which is possible as the respondents are the same). There are four main groups of variables: #The variables in the first group deal with the respondent's social background, including sex, age, education, marital status, occupational status, designation of occupation, branch of economy, size of place of work, number of children under 15, type of household, income, household income, type of residence, place of residence (geographical region and degree of urbanization), class affiliation, trade union membership, and church attendance. In addition, there are variables dealing with the occupation of the head of household, the housewife and the father (or other bread-winner). #The variables in the second group deal with political interest and election campaign questions, including questions concerning the role of newspapers, radio and TV during the election campaign (as well as variables concerning newspaper reading habits in general). In addition, there are variables concerning discussions within the family, with friends and with colleagues in connection with the election campaign in question, as well as variables concerning the extent to which the respondent has received or has given advice as to which party to vote for. #The variables in the third group deal with party affiliation and party preference, including actual vote at the general elections, voting intention at a hypothetical election on the day after the interview, reason(s) for the vote, time of decision, party identification, government preference and father's party preference. #The variables in the fourth group deal with political attitudes, including the respondent's opinion of what are the most important political problems, attitude to NATO, the EC, nuclear power, economic equality, investment control, tax progression, wage freeze, organizational power, government intervention in connection with collective bargaining, public assistance, censorship, indoctrination, the moral development of society, conformity and orthodoxy, opinion of politicians, and political self-confidence