Australian Election Study Combined Data, 2001

The 2001 Australian Election Study is the sixth in a series of surveys beginning in 1987 that have been timed to coincide with Australian Federal elections. The series also builds on the 1967, 1969 and 1979 Australian Political Attitudes Surveys. The Australian Election Studies aim to provide a long-term perspective on stability and change in the political attitudes and behaviour of the Australian electorate, and investigate the changing social bases of Australian politics as the economy and society modernise and change character. In addition to these long-term goals they examine the political issues prevalent in the election and assess their importance for the election result. The 2001 mail survey replicates many questions from the previous Australian Election Studies, but also introduces a variety of new questions including a section on political and social institutions.The online survey ran a truncated set of questions from the mail survey which was conducted as a post-election mail-out and mail-back survey. The goal was to compare the results from this new form of polling methodology with those from the more established method to see how far the two modes yielded comparable results. As opinion polls become more costly to fund and response rates drop, survey researchers are looking for new and more cost effective ways to run election studies. Although the web is being increasingly used for opinion polling it has attracted significant criticism due to the non-probalistic nature of the samples it generates. These data are combined data files for Online and Mail AES 2001 Surveys.