European Parliament Election Study 2009, Voter Study

European Election Study 2009: Electoral behaviour. General political attitudes and behaviour. Political parties. Media usage. EU integration. Value orientations. 1. Voting: Party choice and turnout: participation in the European Parliament elections; party preference; if you had voted in the European Parliament elections, which party would you have voted for; party voted for at the (General Election); if there was a general election tomorrow, which party would be voted for; how probable voting for selected parties. 2. Party ID: Closeness to any particular party. 3. Engagement and mobilization: Watch a program about the election on television, read about the election in a newspaper, talk to friends or family about the election, attend a public meeting or rally about the election, look into a website concerned with the election; contacted by a candidate or party organisation during the election campaign; visit website; interest in campaign; interest in politics. 4. Media Usage: How many days following the news; days watching news programs; which channel; days per week; newspaper read and frequency of reading. 5. Institutions: European Parliament takes into consideration the concerns of European citizens; trust in the EU institutions; important which candidates win seats and become MEPs in the European Parliament elections; important which political party gained the most seats in the European Parliament elections; the national Parliament takes into consideration the concerns of citizens. 6. EU integration: Country’s membership of EU is a good or bad thing; respondent´s attitude to European unification; perception of party regarding EU unification; self-identification as nationality or European; attitudes towards enlargement of the European Union; confidence that EU decisions will be in the interest of country. 7. Value orientations: self placement and placement of parties on left-right continuum; immigrants should adapt to the customs of the hosting country; private enterprise the best to solve economic problems; same-sex marriages should be prohibited; major public services and industries ought to be in state ownership; free decision on abortion; politics abstain from intervening in economy; harsher sentences for people who break the law; redistribution of income and wealth towards ordinary people; schools must teach to obey authority; EU treaty changes decided by referendum; woman cut down her paid work for the sake of family; immigration should be decreased. 8. Domestic and European issues: Most important problems; issue competence of parties; level problem mainly dealt with; most appropriate level to deal with problem; economy of the country is better compared to 12 months ago; general economic situation in the country over the next 12 months; assessment of the developement of health care; interest rates and climate change in the country. 9. Representation: Satisfaction with the democracy in the country and in the EU; asessement of government’s records. 10. Identity: Both parents born in country; country mother born; country father born; country respondent born and national identification of the respondent. 11. Knowledge-test and experience: Switzerland is a member of EU; the number of 25 member states in the European Union; every country in EU elects the same number of representatives to the European Parliament; every six months, a different member state becomes president of the Council of the European Union; correct name of national Minister of Education; individuals must be 25 or older to stand as candidates in national parliament. 12. Attribution of responsibility and evaluation of performance: How responsible are national government or EU for economic conditions, for the standard of health care, for levels of immigration, for setting interest rates, dealing with climate change; national government policies or European Union policies have had a positive influence on economic conditions in the country, on the standard of health care, on levels of immigration, on interest rates, on climate change. 13. Demographics: Member of trade union; age at completion of full-time education; highest level of education (ISCED); gender; age; current marital status; current work situation; occupational sector; main occupation; current job; social class; degree of urbanisation; residence (number of years); religious denomination; attendance of religious services; religiousness; income (family’s status of living). Additionally coded: Respondent id; country; date and length of interview; interview language; household size, interview mode; interviewer id; gender; year of birth; nationality; native language. Weightingfactors: Sample weight per country; political weight; political weight actual EP voters only.