Study title

Politician Panel Survey, December 2020-January 2021

Dataset ID Number

FSD3869

Persistent identifiers

https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3869
https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd3869

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Finnish Research Infrastructure for Public Opinion (FIRIPO)
• Rapeli, Lauri (Åbo Akademi University)

Abstract

The questionnaire surveys the attitudes and opinions of decision-makers towards Finnish democracy and society, as well as decision-making in the respondents' home municipalities. The respondents are municipal councilors. The data was collected as part of the Politician Panel, which is part of The Finnish Research Infrastructure for Public Opinion (FIRIPO).

First, respondents were asked about their general opinions and attitudes towards Finnish society and democracy. Respondents were also asked to place themselves on the left-right axis. The next questions dealt with decision-making in the respondents' home municipality by asking, for example, how much influence certain actors have in the municipality. Finally, respondents were asked to rate how much influence they felt they could have on certain issues in the municipality as a municipal decision-maker.

The background variables are age categorised, mother tongue, level of education, party membership, electoral district and information on how long they have been in local government.

Keywords

attitudes; decision making; democracy; local government; political attitudes; political behaviour; political parties; politics; social systems

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Government, political systems and organisations (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Political behaviour and attitudes (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

FIRIPO Politician panel

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (D) available only by permission from the data depositor/creator.

Data Collector

• Finnish Research Infrastructure for Public Opinion (FIRIPO)

Funders

• Academy of Finland (345714)

Time Period Covered

2020-12 – 2021-01

Collection Dates

2020-12-08 – 2021-01-21

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Finnish municipal councilors

Time Method

Longitudinal: Trend/Repeated cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Non-probability: Purposive

Around 95% of the Finnish municipal councilors were invited to join the panel, which totaled 8999 at the time of the invitation in spring 2020. Of those invited, 1020 municipal councilors signed up to the panel. An invitation to participate in the survey was sent by email to the panel members.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

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: Finnish.

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

Data Version

1.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

The researcher has anonymised the data by replacing the variable indicating the municipality of residence with a variable indicating the electoral district to prevent identification of respondents. The researcher has also removed open-ended variables from the data.

Helsinki and Uusimaa electoral districts have been combined at FSD for identification reasons.

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

Finnish Research Infrastructure for Public Opinion (FIRIPO) & Rapeli, Lauri (Åbo Akademi University): Politician Panel Survey, December 2020-January 2021 [dataset]. Data version 1.0 (2025-04-24). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd3869; URN: https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3869

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Special Terms and Conditions for Access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

FSD has not been informed of any publications related to the data.