Tekijät

• Finnish Research Infrastructure for Public Opinion (FIRIPO)
• Jäske, Maija (Åbo Akademi University)

Asiasanat

attitudes, citizen participation, citizenship, climate change, economic policy, political participation, social influence, trust

Sisällön kuvaus

The data relates to the Citizens' Jury funded by the Ministry of the Environment, which convened in spring 2021 to discuss the Medium-term Climate Policy Plan (KAISU). The data was used to examine Finnish citizens' views on the functioning of the KAISU Citizens' Jury through an experimental design. The data was collected as part of the Citizen Opinion Panel, which is part of The Finnish Research Infrastructure for Public Opinion (FIRIPO).

At the beginning of the survey, respondents are asked to evaluate statements concerning current political issues, such as their views on the social and health care reform, cuts to public services, and efforts to combat climate change in Finland.

In the next section of the survey, the respondents in the experimental group read a short text concerning climate policy decision-making in Finland. The survey used a randomized experimental design in which the experimental groups were presented with a text containing four different statements (Q4, Q5, Q6, and Q8) in two different forms (versions A and B), with varying word choices. Four aspects were varied in the text: the organizer of the Citizens' Jury (the Ministry of the Environment or university researchers), the selection method of the Jury (emphasis on diversity and representativeness or no mention), the Jury's preparation (prior familiarization with research data or no mention), and an example of the Jury commenting on the Ministry's proposed measures (an example of the Jury's potential to influence or no example). Additionally, a control group C was included, which was not presented with any text about the Citizens' Jury. However, the control group was still asked questions about the Citizens' Jury. For example, they were asked whether they consider the Citizens' Jury to be a reliable method in the preparation of Finland's climate policy and whether they believe that the Jury is capable of producing good proposals for policy development.

Following this, the respondents were asked to evaluate various statements related to climate policy. These included questions about whether Finnish climate policy is fair and equitable, whether climate change should be tackled more actively, and how much they trust different actors (the Ministry of the Environment, researchers, companies, the government) to mitigate climate change. The survey then explored the respondents' general political views, including whether political decision-makers take citizens' views into account in their decision-making and whether citizens are capable of deliberating on political issues. At the end of the survey, respondents were asked about their general trust in other people as well as their trust in various sources of climate-related information (e.g., the government, officials at the Ministry of the Environment, citizens' juries, social media, universities, and research institutes).

The background variables included are the respondent's age, gender, native language, education, region, household's gross annual income, political interest, and political party preference.