Authors

• European Election Study Group
• Mattila, Mikko (University of Helsinki. Department of Political Science)
• Raunio, Tapio (University of Tampere. Department of Political Science and International Relations)

Keywords

European Parliament elections, European Union, elections, identity, integration, mass media, political attitudes, political behaviour, political institutions, political parties, trust, voting

Abstract

The data is Finland's contribution to the fourth data collection round of the European Election Study (ESS). The survey which was collected immediately after the 2004 European Parliament elections (13 June 2004) charts opinions on the European Union and elections.

Firstly, respondents were asked what are the most important problems in Finland, which of them is the single most important, which political party would be best at dealing with it and at which level (regional, national or EU) it is/should be mainly dealt with. Frequency of watching television news programmes and reading newspapers, and the preferred newspaper and TV news programme were surveyed. Respondents were also asked how often they watched programmes or read about the European election and talked to friends and attended public meetings in relation to the elections during the four weeks preceding the election. Interest in the election campaign was examined.

Respondents' voting behaviour was charted with questions about preferred political party in the European Parliament elections, the 2003 Finnish Parliament elections and future parliamentary elections. Probability of voting various political parties was investigated. One theme covered respondents' trust in various matters, for example, people from various countries, the Finnish Parliament and government and the European Parliament, Commission and Council of Ministers. Respondents' were asked to place themselves and different political parties on the left-right axis. Views on the general economic situation in Finland and other EU citizens' entitlement to Finnish social security and their right to vote in Finnish municipal elections were examined. Respondents were also asked whether employers should give priority to Finns over citizens from other Member States when jobs are scarce in Finland. Opinions on the European integration were investigated by asking respondents what they think about Finland's EU membership and whether the unification should be pushed further. In conclusion, respondents were asked are they proud to be citizens of the European Union, are they satisfied with the way democracy works in Finland and the EU, do they approve of Finnish government's actions and which political party they feel closest to.

Background variables included respondent's age, gender, year and country of birth, age of ending full-time education, year of coming to Finland, trade union membership, current economic activity, employment sector, self-designated social class, municipality type, province of residence, religion, attendance in religious services, number of household members aged over 18, and monthly income of household.