Study title

Finnish Municipal Election Study 2017

Dataset ID Number

FSD3251

Persistent identifier

urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3251

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Borg, Sami (University of Tampere. Faculty of Management)

Abstract

The study charted Finnish political attitudes, opinions and behaviour in the 2017 municipal elections in Finland. The study was part of a project of the Foundation for Municipal Development (KAKS) which also funded data collection.

First, the respondents' interest in politics and municipal election campaigning was charted as well as what sort of sources the respondents used for municipal election communications and information. The respondents were also asked where they received information regarding the election, parties and candidates and what they considered important election themes in the municipal elections. It was also examined whether the respondents were mainly interested in national or local issues in the municipal elections.

Next, the respondents were asked to evaluate whether they agreed or disagreed with a set of attitudinal statements regarding satisfaction with democracy, voting, parties, the Government and the Parliament, municipal politics, the importance of municipal elections, and the residents' ability to impact local matters. The respondents were also asked how important they considered having an influence on different municipal services, e.g. education, public transport, land use planning, libraries and healthcare. The respondents' attitudes toward the social and healthcare reform ('Sote reform') were also examined.

Finally, the survey charted the respondents' political activity, motives for voting and voting behaviour with questions regarding active citizenship in the past, how they would prefer to impact matters in their municipality, and political party preference. Depending on whether the respondents had voted or not in the 2017 municipal elections, reasons for not voting or for choosing the party and candidate were enquired.

Background variables included age, gender, municipality and region of residence, type of municipality of residence and residential area, education level, marital status, economic activity and occupational status, occupational group and sector, membership in a trade union or professional association, self-perceived social class, annual gross income of the household, household composition, mother tongue, unemployment in the previous year, and the political party the respondent had voted for in the 2017 and 2012 municipal elections.

Keywords

councillors; health policy; local government; local government elections; local government officers; local government services; political action; political awareness; political behaviour; political campaigns; political influence; political interest; political participation; political parties; politics; 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

• Kantar TNS Finland

Time Period Covered

2017

Collection Dates

2017-04-21 – 2017-05-12

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Persons residing in Finland who were entitled to vote in the 2017 municipal elections (excluding the Åland Islands)

Time Method

Cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Probability: Multistage

A national phone number register was used to recruit a total of 2,644 respondents who gave their consent for participating in the study. This group of respondents was stratified in multiple stages according to region of residence, gender and age to correspond to the national population of those entitled to vote in Finland.

Of the persons recruited for the study, 1,726 (63.9%) responded to the survey. The respondents could choose to respond either online or by mail; 1,078 participants responded online, and 648 respondents mailed in their response.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Paper

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Response Rate

63.9

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: 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

219 variables and 1726 cases.

Data Version

2.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

To prevent identification of respondents, variable q52 concerning the respondent's membership in a trade union or professional association was removed from the data. For the same reason, responses to variables bv2 denoting age and q54 denoting income were categorised. In variable q43 denoting municipality of residence, only the largest municipalities with at least 18 respondents were left in the data. Additionally, variable q23 concerning municipal positions of trust was revised into three new variables q23a, q23b and q23c. Q23a receives value label 1 if the participant responded to at least one of the original q23 questions with value label 1, q23b receives value label 1 if the participant responded to at least one of the original q23 questions with value label 2, and q23c receives value label 1 if the participant responded to all the original q23 questions with value label 3. In variable q16_19 denoting candidacy in the municipal elections, values 1 and 2 were reclassified into one class. Variable q43 denoting municipality of residence was added in version 2.0.

The data do not include open-ended responses to variable q5. Variable q41 regarding year of birth was removed because the data already contain the age variable bv2. Those persons were removed from the data who were reached in the phone recruitment but who eventually did not respond to the survey.

Weighting

There is a weight variable in the data [paino1] to make the data representative of the target population in terms of gender, age and residential location.

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

Borg, Sami (University of Tampere): Finnish Municipal Election Study 2017 [dataset]. Version 2.0 (2020-01-29). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3251

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 Materials

Borg, Sami (2018). Kuntavaalitutkimus 2017 [verkkodokumentti]. Keuruu: Otavan Kirjapaino Oy. https://kaks.fi/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/tutkimusjulkaisu_kuntavaalitutkimus-2017.pdf [viitattu 5.11.2018]

Related Publications

Borg, Sami (2018). Kuntavaalitutkimus 2017 [verkkodokumentti]. Keuruu: Otavan Kirjapaino Oy. https://kaks.fi/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/tutkimusjulkaisu_kuntavaalitutkimus-2017.pdf [viitattu 5.11.2018].

Kestilä-Kekkonen Elina, Sipinen Josefina, Borg Sami, Tiihonen Aino & Wass Hanna (2018). Kuntademokratiaindikaattorit 2017 [verkkodokumentti]. Oikeusministeriön selvityksiä ja ohjeita 6/2018. Helsinki: Oikeusministeriö. http://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/handle/10024/160579 [viitattu 28.10.2019].

Kangas, Taru (2022). Ketä kiinnostaa? Analyysi kunnallisiin keskustelutilaisuuksiin osallistuvien toimijuudesta. Johtamisen ja talouden pro gradu -tutkielma. Tampere: Tampereen yliopisto. https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202205255233