British Election Study: 1969-1970, February 1974 Panel

This data collection is part of a continuing series of surveys of the British electorate, begun by David Butler and Donald Stokes at Nuffield College, Oxford, in 1963, and continued at the University of Essex. This panel study about the British general election of February 1974 was conducted with a sample of electors in 80 constituencies who had previously been interviewed twice, once in 1969 and again after the 1970 general election. This data collection contains information gathered in the third wave of the study, known as the February 1974 cross-section panel survey. It includes data gathered from participants who were interviewed in 1970, of whom about half had also been interviewed in 1969. As with other surveys in the series, electors in Northern Ireland and the Scottish Highlands and Islands were excluded from the sampling frame. Interviewed in March-April 1974, respondents answered questions relating to the mass media (e.g., attention to newspapers and television and perceived bias in newspapers), their first and second choices in the 1974 general election, and their opinions of the Conservative, Labour, Liberal, Scottish Nationalist, and Plaid Cymru political parties (e.g., perceived difference among parties, knowledge of party position/record, party identification, and the strength of party preference). Respondents were asked for their views on a range of social issues relating to domestic and foreign affairs, with emphasis on the economy and the Common Market. Respondents were then asked how the parties stood on each issue, and how much that influenced the respondent's vote. Some of the issues included rising prices, strikes in general, the miners' strike, taxation, the Common Market, social services, nationalization, wage control, and the amount of power held by unions and by big business. Respondents were also asked for their perceptions of class conflict and their predictions for Britain's future economy. Finally, respondents rated the political parties and several politicians, and commented on the effect of government on their own well-being. Background information includes age, sex, marital status, place of residence during childhood, subjective class, forced subjective class, family class, tenure, type and length of residence, employment status, degree of responsibility in and training for job (respondent and spouse), experience of unemployment in household, income trade union membership (respondent and spouse), and socioeconomic group.