General Election Study Belgium, 1991 and 1995

The General Election Study Belgium has several aims: to collect cross-sectional data with the view of describing and explaining political and social attitudes and the political behaviour of the Belgian electorate; to create a database for longitudinal analysis (panel and repeated cross-sectional data) with the view of analysing short-term and long-term trends and changes in political attitudes and behaviour; to produce high-quality data, based on intensive interviewer training, a careful selection of the most effective and satisfactory sample design, a continuing improvement of the overall design of the questionnaire, the evaluation of existing measurement instruments for the core concepts, the development of new instrumentation, montioring the comparability of measures over time and across groups, etc.; to organise and make available these data in a form suitable for a wide range of research; to motivate research projects that will contribute to the testing of existing theories of voting and other forms of political participation in different scientific disciplines (poltical science, sociology, social psychology) and to development of new theories; to stimulate comparative research at the subnational and international level; to provide opportunities for methodological advancement of survey design and analysis. Please note that the first and second waves (1991 and 1995) are the only studies in the series currently held at the Data Archive. The 1995 dataset was originally deposited in 1999, and the 1991 data were added for the second edition of the dataset in March 2000. Both studies focused on general political attitudes and behaviour. Data were collected on political information and knowledge, perceptions of political bodies such as parties, and perceptions of problems and other issues. Other questions examine party identification, party preferences, feelings of political efficacy, and the nature and extent of political participation. Perceptions of social class and (economic) well-being, attitudes to immigrant workers, authoritarian attitudes, political corruption and the environment are some of the other issues investigated in this study. Extensive demographic data on the respondents and their families was also collected. For further details please see documentation.

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Geographic Coverage:

BE

Resource Type:

dataset

Available in Data Catalogs:

UK Data Service