Study title

Decision-Making within the Centre Party of Finland 2001

Dataset ID Number

FSD2376

Persistent identifier

urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD2376

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Jutila, Karina

Abstract

The aim of the study was to find out how the members and professional politicians of the Centre Party of Finland define the party's internal decision-making and the roles of various actors in it.

The respondents were asked how often they participated in party meetings and organizational activities, which factors they believed had influenced the choice of the party leader, and how the respondents communicated with various bodies within the party. The respondents listed the most important tasks of the members of the Centre Party, and they gave their opinions on how much influence they believed the party members had in internal decisions. Sources of information about different party activities were queried, as well as the amount of influence various bodies had on the internal decision-making of the Centre Party.

The respondents assessed the activities of the party on the regional and national level, for instance in terms of openness, democracy, topic orientation, and reformism. They were also presented with a set of attitudinal statements on democracy and the exercise of power within the Centre Party. In addition, the respondents' views were probed on the so-called labour market reform programme of the party in the 1999 Parliamentary elections and on the party's favourable stance on the EU membership issue adopted in the 1994 party meeting. Finally, the respondents were asked to give their opinions on various issues, such as nuclear power, supporting small business, registration of same-sex relationships, accepting refugees, and securing services in rural areas.

Background variables included the respondent's age, gender, education, marital status, size of municipality of residence, current and previous duties within the party, and the parents' political party preference.

Keywords

decision making; democracy; dissemination of information; organizations; political leaders; political parties; politics; trust; voting

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Government, political systems and organisations (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Political ideology (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Individual datasets

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Data Collector

• Jutila, Karina

Time Period Covered

2001

Collection Dates

2001-10 – 2001-11

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Members of the Centre Party of Finland, district committee members and chairpersons, and district executive directors.

Time Method

Cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Total universe/Complete enumeration

Probability: Systematic random

Total study of the district committee members and chairpersons and the district executive directors of the Centre Party of Finland (463 persons). In addition, systematic sampling from the district organizations' member registers (1,048 persons). The sample was divided by districts according to the number of members in each district. For each district, the 70th name in the register was chosen as the starting point and the systematic regular intervals after the starting point were determined by the number of members in the district.

Collection Mode

Face-to-face interview

Self-administered questionnaire: Paper

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Response Rate

District committee members and chairpersons and district executive directors 70. Party members 31.

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: Finnish.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Data Version

2.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

To prevent identification of respondents, the highest values in the 'number of children' variable (bv4) were categorised into a single category (5 and over).

The dataset does not include the responses to the open-ended questions K3b, K8b, K11, K13 and K20 nor the responses given in the comment section.

Weighting

There are no weight variables in the data.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Jutila, Karina: Decision-Making within the Centre Party of Finland 2001 [dataset]. Version 2.0 (2019-01-18). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD2376

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Related Publications

Jutila, Karina (2003): Yksillä säännöillä, kaksilla korteilla? Empiirinen tutkimus Suomen Keskustan sisäisestä päätöksenteosta. Tampere: Tampereen yliopisto. Acta Electronica Universitatis Tamperensis; 269. urn:isbn:951-44-5808-7