Authors

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

Keywords

attitudes, democracy, local government, local government policy, neutrality, political attitudes, political influence, political parties, politics, social systems

Abstract

The survey gathers the opinions of municipal councilors on municipal policy and on various types of councils. 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 various statements related to neutrality and the extent to which they perceive the handling of certain cases to be neutral in their municipality. This was followed by a question about the perception that some politicians hold political positions at different political levels. This was followed by statements about the councils in the municipalities, relating to issues such as the influence of the councils, the information available from the councils and the extent to which the expertise of the different councils is used in the municipality.

Background variables include party membership, electoral district, gender, mother tongue, age and educational level.