Study title

Finnish eOpinion Panel 2011

Alternative Title

eOpinion 2011

Dataset ID Number

FSD2826

Persistent identifier

urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD2826

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Grönlund, Kimmo (Åbo Akademi University. Social Science Research Institute)
• Strandberg, Kim (Åbo Akademi University. Social Science Research Institute)

Abstract

The data cover public opinion on Finnish parliamentary elections held in 2011, collected in seven separate collection rounds from the same respondents. The respondents' views on politics and changes in these views were charted both before and after the elections.

In the first round, the respondents were asked about their interest in politics, self-placement on the left-right axis, satisfaction with life and trust in other people. Party preference and opinions on party leaders were investigated.

In the second round of data collection, trust in different institutions and political parties was charted. Moreover, the respondents were asked to rate how good or bad several suggestions about the Finland of the future were (e.g. "Finland with smaller income disparity", "Finland in which law and order have more significance"). Views were probed on the preferred government coalition and prime minister after the 2011 parliamentary elections. Further questions charted whether the respondents were going to vote in the parliamentary elections and which party or parties they considered voting for.

The third collection round included several statements charting the respondents' personal characteristics and preferences (e.g. "Abstract ideas are of no interest to me", "I often worry over things", "I'm interested in other people"). The respondents were asked whether they considered themselves to be a supporter of a certain party and to what extent they thought the Government formed after the 2007 elections had listened to the people, tried to clarify its policy decisions to them and attempted to fulfil their wishes. The final questions in this round probed how different the policies of different parties had seemed and how much the respondents liked each party.

The questions in the fourth collection round charted how much the respondents had followed the approaching parliamentary elections in different media and what forms of civic participation the respondents had or would be willing to engage in. Internet use and the frequency of visiting different web sites relating to the elections in the previous two weeks were investigated. The respondents were asked to what extent they agreed with several statements concerning politics, elections and political parties. Satisfaction with the state of democracy in Finland was surveyed.

In the fifth collection round, opinions on the different forms of political decision-making were charted as well as whether the respondents had followed certain campaign debates on TV. A number of statements about political hot topics were presented (e.g. "Finland should support other EU countries with financial difficulties"). The respondents' opinions on the increase in work-related immigration were investigated as well as what they thought the attitudes of different political parties towards the issue were.

The sixth collection round charted whether the respondents had used candidate selectors / voting advice applications on the Internet before the parliamentary elections, which selectors they had used, how relevant they felt the questions in each selector were, whether they had followed certain campaign debates and election programmes on TV and how much they liked or disliked the party leaders. The final questions in this collection round charted whether the respondents had voted in advance or whether they were going to vote at all and which party they had or were going to vote for.

In the final collection round, conducted after the elections, the respondents were asked, again, how often they had visited web sites relating to the elections in the previous two weeks. Further questions probed where they had received information that supported their voting decision, whether they had voted in the elections, the representative of which party they had voted for and whether they had considered voting for a member of another party. Finally, the respondents were asked which, the party or the candidate, had been more important when voting, how easy it had been for them to select the party and candidate they had voted for and which parties they thought should form the new coalition government.

Background variables included the respondent's mother tongue, gender, electoral district, age, level of education and employment status.

Keywords

parliamentary candidates; parliamentary elections; political attitudes; political behaviour; political leaders; political participation; political support; voting; voting advice applications

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Political behaviour and attitudes (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Elections (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

• Grönlund, Kimmo (Åbo Akademi University. Social Science Research Institute)
• Strandberg, Kim (Åbo Akademi University. Social Science Research Institute)

Time Period Covered

2011

Collection Dates

2011-02-23 – 2011-04-20

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Finnish citizens aged 18-75 living in Finland (excluding the Åland Islands)

Time Method

Cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Probability: Simple random

The sample (13,000 persons) was drawn from the Finnish Population Register Centre and is representative of people with a right to vote in continental Finland. The sample was stratified according to mother tongue (10,000 Finnish-speaking and 3,000 Swedish-speaking persons). Persons in the sample were sent invitations to participate in the study by mail. Those who accepted the invitation were asked to log in to the online panel website.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Response Rate

5.3

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: Swedish, English and Finnish.

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

Number of Cases and Variables

306 variables and 695 cases.

Data Version

1.0

Related Datasets

FSD3675 eOpinion 2019

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

The Swedish data do not include the responses to questions t6_37_4 and t6_37_5.

Collection rounds have been emphasised in the numbering of the questions. The number following the letter t indicates the collection round. For example, 't2' signifies the second and 't3' the third collection round. The number of collection round is followed by the actual question number.

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

Grönlund, Kimmo (Åbo Akademi University) & Strandberg, Kim (Åbo Akademi University): Finnish eOpinion Panel 2011 [dataset]. Version 1.0 (2013-07-23). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD2826

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

Grönlund, Kimmo and Strandberg, Kim (2014). Online Panels and Validity Representativeness and Attrition in the Finnish eOpinion panel. Teoksessa: Online Panel research: A Data Quality Perspective (toim. Mario Callegaro, Reg Baker, Jelke Bethlehem, Anja S. Göritz, Jon A. Krosnick and Paul J. Lavrakas). 86-103. Wiley Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118763520.ch4