Authors

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

Keywords

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

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.