ISSP is a continuous programme of cross-national collaboration on social science surveys. It is based on annual, internationally integrated surveys carried out in all participating countries. A self-financed consortium of various research institutions is in charge of the programme. The ISSP data collection started in 1985, and in Finland in 2000, along with the national membership.
The GESIS in Germany is responsible for archiving the ISSP data. Country-specific codebooks and questionnaires can be found on the GESIS ISSP web pages. ZACAT, the data portal of the GESIS, offers information on ISSP surveys, with online retrieval, analysis and download. Their Data Catalogue DBK allows retrieval and download of data and questionnaires. Both services are free of charge but downloading requires registration. The ZACAT registration is valid for DBK and vice versa.
In Finland, ISSP surveys are carried out in collaboration by three institutions: Finnish Social Science Data Archive, Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Tampere, and the Interview and Survey Services of Statistics Finland.
ISSP 2016: Role of Government V: Finnish Data - survey investigated the opinions of Finnish people on government and government actions, authorities, citizen's possibilities of influencing government, taxation, corruption, and immigration.
The first questions dealt with law and the justice systems. The respondents were asked whether they thought that people should obey the law without exception and whether they thought it is worse to convict an innocent person or to let a guilty person go free. The respondents were also asked about ways in which people or organisations should be permitted to protest against the government and what rights should be allowed for political extremists.
Views on government's possible economic measures were probed. The respondents' were asked if they were in favour or against certain measures, such as "cuts in government spending" and "reducing the working week to create more jobs". Next, the respondents were presented with a list of government spending areas. They were asked whether they would like to see the government spend more or less money on areas such as health, the police and law enforcement, and education. Furthermore, views on government responsibilities such as "keeping prices under control" or "providing health care for the sick" were investigated. The respondents' attitudes on who should provide services, such as health care for the sick, care for the elderly, or education for children, were charted. The options included government, private companies, non-profit organisations, religious organisations, and family.
Perceptions of which people and organisations have the most influence on government actions in Finland were investigated. Views on civil liberties and public security were studied with questions about government surveillance of private persons. Furthermore, the respondents were asked what rights the authorities should have in case of a suspected terrorist act. Next, the respondents' interest in politics and their views on how they could influence politics were studied.
Views on taxation for people with different levels of income, as well as attitudes towards tax authorities and major private companies were investigated. Opinions on corruption of politicians and public officials were studied as well. Lastly, the respondents were asked how successful the Finnish government was in providing health care for the sick, providing a decent standard of living for the old, and dealing with threats to Finland's security. The Finnish questionnaire also contained a question about immigration, which was absent from the English version of the ISSP questionnaire. In this question, the respondents' views on who should be allowed to immigrate to Finland were studied.
Background variables included the respondent's gender, age, education, participation in working life, occupation, weekly working time, whether R held a managerial position, employer (public/private sector), membership in trade union, voting behaviour, religion, income, and information about R's neighbourhood.
Systematic random sample from the population register maintained by Statistics Finland. Sorting order: municipality of residence and time of birth
The sample size was 2,500 persons, 94.9% of whom were Finnish speakers, and 5.1% of whom were Swedish speakers. 1,186 forms were returned. Non-response was 1,314. The reasons for non-response were: unknown address (10), sick or otherwise unable (2), language problems (1), chosen respondent absent (1), refusal (4), forms returned empty (5), and other reason (1,291).