Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
The British Election Panel Studies are designed to analyse political change - to discover when and why voters change their political allegiances during an electoral cycle, and in response to what events. They examine voting or abstentions in local government and European elections as well as fluctuations in party support during the lead-up to general elections. The British General Election Panel Study 1997-2001 followed respondents to the 1997 British General Election Study and re-interviewed them at intervals until the 2001 election. Face-to-face rounds took place each spring/summer after the local and/or European elections, with the final wave coming after the 2001 general election. Three telephone/postal rounds were conducted in autumn 1997, autumn 2000 and in May 2001, during the 2001 general election campaign. The dataset includes all eight waves. The study follows a similar panel conducted over the period 1992-1997 (the British Election Panel Study 1992-1997, held under SN:3888). The main aim of this study is to analyse political change within the electorate over the period between two panels.
Main Topics:
The file (beps9701.por) contains data from all eight waves of the panel: Wave 1: 1997: 3,615 respondents to the 1997 British General Election Study; Wave 2: 1997: 2,989 respondents to the autumn 1997 telephone/postal wave; Wave 3: 1998: 2,807 respondents to the spring/summer 1998 face-to-face wave; Wave 4: 1999: 2,570 respondents to the spring/summer 1999 face-to-face wave. Wave 5: 2000: 2,400 respondents to the spring/summer 2000 face-to-face wave. Wave 6: 2000: 2,293 respondents to the autumn 2000 telephone/postal wave. Wave 7: 2001: 2,300 respondents to the spring 2001 telephone/postal wave. Wave 8: 2001: 2.300 respondents to the spring/summer 2001 face-to-face final wave. The sample includes a Scottish boost. The topics covered include: Newspaper readership and campaigns, electoral registration, media exposure, party preference, local elections, party images, leader images, assessment of Conservative government, European Union, Northern Ireland, nuclear weapons, nationalism, ethnic minorities, women's rights, abortion, trade unions, political trust, economic evaluations, political knowledge, class identity/constitutional issues, unemployment and inflation, taxation, government services, nationalisation, privatisation, redistribution of income. Demographic information was also gathered. Standard Measures BGES Left-Right scale: wave 1 self-completion questions 3a, b, e, f, g, 4a; wave 3 questions T181-T186; wave 5 questions V249-254: wave 8 self-completion questions 1a, b, c, d, e, f. BGES Libertarian-Authoritarian scale: wave 1 self-completion questions 3c, 3d and 4b-e: wave 8 self-completion questions 2a, b, c, d, e, f.
Simple random sample
Multi-stage stratified random sample
random probability sample; Check against electoral register, link to census data.
Face-to-face interview
Telephone interview
Postal survey
Self-completion
CAPI
