Dutch Election Study, 1970-1973

Résumé 0

This election study was designed as a three-wave panel, with the first wave conducted shortly after the Dutch Provincial Council elections of March 18, 1970 (1,838 respondents), the second wave after the April 1971 parliamentary election (1,262 of the first-wave respondents), and the third wave after the parliamentary election of November 1972 (972 of the original respondents). In addition, a questionnaire was mailed to respondents who had refused an interview in the first or second wave, with a total of 356 responses obtained from this mailing. The study focused on the partisan orientations of the Dutch people. Questions were asked in each wave about party identification, electoral choices in the three parliamentary elections as well as local elections, awareness of candidates, issue importance, and political activities. In addition, Wave Two concentrated on the concept of representation: questions focused on citizens' perceptions of the stance of political parties with respect to national issues such as abortion, civil disturbances, aid to developing nations, income distribution, taxation, and defense spending, as well as respondents' opinions on the responsiveness of representatives to citizen demands. The third wave measured changes in attitudes and opinions during the period covered by the entire study. Many of the questions on public policy stands were repeated. All three waves contain information on respondents' family, sex, religion, marital status, education, and occupation.