European Communities Study, 1973

A precursor to the Eurobarometer studies, this survey queried respondents on some of what would become standard Eurobarometer measures, such as how satisfied they were with their present lives, whether they attempted to persuade others close to them to share their views on subjects they held strong opinions about, whether they discussed political matters, what their country's goals should be for the next ten years, and how they viewed the need for societal change. Additional questions focused on the respondents' knowledge of and opinions on the European Community (EC), including how well-informed they felt about the EC, what sources of information about the EC they used, whether their country had benefited from being an EC member, and the extent of their personal interest in EC matters. Another major focus of the surveys was on the respondents' satisfaction with various aspects of life and society, including satisfaction with their work, housing, leisure time, welfare programs, and life in general. Respondents' political attitudes were also assessed, e.g., political party preference, political participation, and which goals they felt were important for their country. Another series of questions focused on the European Community. Respondents were asked to name the countries that had recently joined the Common Market. They were also asked to rate the information they received from the news media along several dimensions. Other questions covered respondents' attitudes toward their countries' EC membership, e.g., whether it was good or bad and why, whether their own country or the European Community could better handle certain problems, and whether it was desirable to work toward a United Europe. Respondents were also asked which party they supported and to place themselves on a left-right ideological scale. Demographic information on religion, age, occupation, sex, marital status, education, size of community, income, and number of persons in household was also gathered. In addition to the survey itself, the ICPSR version of the study contains three constructed indices. Two of these indices place respondents along a materialist/postmaterialist values continuum and the other categorizes respondents' political ideology according to their party preferences. This study contains information gathered from samples of respondents aged 15 or older interviewed in each of the nine nations of the newly expanded European Community in September-October 1973. The same questionnaire was administered to a total of 13,484 respondents: 1,957 from Germany, 1,933 from Great Britain, 1,199 from Denmark, 1,909 from Italy, 2,227 from France, 1,266 from Belgium, 330 from Luxembourg, 1,199 from Ireland, and 1,464 from the Netherlands.