Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
The British Election Study, 2005: Face-to-Face Survey comprises the cross-section surveys conducted before and after the 2005 general election. All original key questions that had been part of the BES series since 1964 were included, as well as the questions on ideology, economic perceptions and issue positions that were introduced after 1979. Further questions added for the BES 2001, to explain turnout and explore attitudes towards elections, parties, and the democratic process, were again fielded in 2005. The pre-election survey for 2005 comprised a 30-minute face-to-face interview with a random sample of the adult population of Britain living in private households, including both Scottish and Welsh boost samples. The post-election survey followed as many respondents from the pre-election wave as was possible. In addition, a top-up sample of new respondents was added in order to maintain the sample size and reduce bias due to attrition. After the post-election survey, a 'one year out' internet follow-up survey was also conducted with respondents who had agreed to be recontacted. For further details of methodology, see documentation. In a 'first of its kind' experiment in a national election study, the BES team conducted a survey mode comparison between the face-to-face BES 2005 survey and the internet survey (held under SN 5496). This experiment was designed to provide a sampling frame comparison between a conventional sample and internet users drawn from a probability sample. The dataset also includes aggregate constituency-level data and political and demographic information, plus constituency-level party campaign spending data.
Main Topics:
Topics covered within the pre- and post-election surveys included electoral issues, party identification and support, party positions on taxation and expenditure, voting intentions and behaviour, opinions on party leaders, trust in British institutions, contact with local politicians, attitudes to the European Union, attitudes to the Iraq war, social trust, beliefs and value, social and political attitudes, and demographic characteristics. The 'one-year-out' internet follow-up survey asked respondents about political issues, attitudes to and opinions of political parties and leaders, voting, governance of Britain since the 2005 election, and gathered demographic details such as age, gender and social class.
Multi-stage stratified random sample
See documentation for details.
Face-to-face interview
Telephone interview
Self-completion
Internet survey
