Danish Election Study 1998

Danish Election Study 1998 contains data collected by ACNielsen AIM in March-June 1998. # #The following background information is included in the data material: #The respondent's sex, age and marital status; size of the household and number of adults (18 years or more) and children in the household, and age of the children; the respondent's education, occupational status and income as well as private or public employment; periods of unemployment within the last two years; membership of a trade union; total income of the respondent and of the household; ownership of the dwelling; and geographical location and degree of urbanization of the dwelling. # #In addition, the following issues are included: #1. General political attitude: #The most important problems for the politicians to solve; participation in political discussions prior to the election; general interest in politics; vote at the general election on 11 March, 1998; time of decision; whether the respondent voted with enthusiasm, with satisfaction or with mixed feelings; whether the respondent voted for a party or for a candidate, and whether it was a woman or a man; most important reasons for voting as the respondent did; whether the respondent considered voting for another party; the importance of a number of issues in the election campaign for the choice of party; assessment of the individual political parties and the party leaders; vote at the general election in 1994; degree of party affiliation; membership of a political party; whether a number of problems can best be solved by the present Social Democratic government or by a non-Socialist government; attitude to a number of political questions such as: social benefits, standard of living and income, state control of trade and industry, the position of banks and large-scale industry, user payment in the public sector, and benefit of election campaigns in newspapers, on the radio and on TV; attitude to the two main strategies (the 'welfare strategy' and the 'export strategy') for creating more jobs; most important goals for society (maintain law and order; give individuals greater opportunity to influence political decisions; fight against rising prices; protection of freedom of speech); attitude to public expenses in a number of fields; a rise in gross tax and a reduction in general income tax; assessment of public service in a number of areas (libraries; hospitals; primary school; kindergartens and nurseries; home-help); lower taxes versus an improvement of the public sector; lower taxes versus instalments on the national debt; attitude to the Sound bridge and the Great Belt bridge; attitude to a number of views from the political debate; attiude to the proposed changes of the refugee and immigrant policy; general attitude to politics and politicians; degree of trust in Danish politicians; degree of satisfaction with the way democracy functions in Denmark; general attitude to the EU; vote at the Union referendum in 1993; voting intention at the coming EU referndum (the Amsterdam Treaty) on 28 May; reasons for voting yes or no; attitude to a number of views on the EU co-operation; placing on a political left-right scale; placing of the respondent and of the political parties on a scale concerning a number of subjects (how many refugees can the country take in; how large should the public sector be; concern for the environment and 'green' policy; support to families with children; severe penalties versus prevention and humane treatment of criminals; economic retrenchment; the relation to the EU); whether the last general election in Denmark was carried out correctly; whether the political parties take people's views into account; whether political parties are necessary; whether the members of parliament know what the man in the street thinks; whether it makes any difference which party is in power; whether it is of importance whom people vote for; whether the Danes in general say what they think about political matters; whether the Danes choose party on the basis of political attitudes or because of the party leaders they like best; whether refugees should be sent home as soon as possible or should be integrated; whether abuse of the unemployment benefit system is a great problem; whether the respondent remembers the name of any of the candidates who stood for Parliament in the respondent's county or constituency; the country's economic situation compared with last year; the respondent's benefit of the economic upswing; whether the respondent has had any contact with a member of parliament within the last year