European Communities Studies, 1973-1984: Cumulative File

This cumulative data collection contains a number of attitudinal and demographic variables selected from the European Communities Study, 1973, and the Eurobarometer studies 3-21. Question items chosen from the individual surveys for inclusion in the cumulative file have appeared in at least four different surveys. Most items, however, were included in nearly all of the studies carried out during the 13-year period from 1973-1984. This allows the user to run cumulative or longitudinal analyses using the year of the survey as a variable (V54), or to sort on the individual survey (V1). # Some of the attitudinal variables are: #- the respondent's overall life satisfaction (whether the respondent is satisfied with the life she/he leads, with the way democracy works in the respondent's country, with the kind of society the respondent lives in, and whether the respondent is happy); #- opinion of three basic kinds of attitudes vis-a-vis the society the respondent lives in: the entire way our society is organized must be radically changed by revolutionary action; our society must be gradually improved by reforms; and our present society must be valiantly defended against all subversive forces; #- the country's goals for the next ten to fifteen years: maintaining order, giving the people more to say in important government decisions, fighting rising prices, protecting freedom of speech; #- participation in political discussions with friends; whether the respondent often tries to persuade friends, relatives or fellow workers to share her/his views; #- left/right political orientation (placement on a scale from 1-10); #- attitudes to membership of the EC (should the countries help another EC country with major economic difficulties, attitudes to the European Parliamentary Elections, attitude to a unification of Europe, attitudes which a member of the European Parliament is expected to have); #- expectations of the following year (as regards strikes and industrial disputes, peace and international disputes, the risk of a world war breaking out); #- political party for which the respondent would vote at a hypothetical general election on the day after the interview; #- views on nuclear power; #- attitudes to inequality of income; #- attitudes to the introduction of more severe penalties for acts of terrorism; #- attitudes to the expansion of public ownership of private industry; #- attitudes to the Government playing a greater role in the management of the economy; #- attitudes to Western Europe making a stronger effort to provide adequate military defence; #- attitudes to stronger measures being taken to protect the environment against pollution; #- strength of religious attachment (whether the respondent belongs to a religion, goes to religious services frequently). # Three indices constructed by the primary investigators - cognitive mobilization, materialist/post-materialist values, and left/right vote - are also included. # The demographic variables in this data collection are age, sex, marital status, household composition, occupation, religion, income, age at which the respondent left school, town size, and region