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<i>British General Election Study, 1997 : Campaign Panel</i> The aims of this survey were : to analyse the interaction between medium-term economic and short-term political factors and the way in which they determine the outcome of elections; to understand the dynamics of the election campaign and how the process of modernisation and professionalisation of campaign communications has affected the role of political leaders, the media, and the political trust and knowledge of voters.

Main Topics:

The file contains data for (initially) 3,662 respondents from four waves of interviewing : <i>British Social Attitudes</i> (BSA) 1996 in spring 1996; Wave B : 3-4 weeks before the 1997 general election; Wave C : 1-2 weeks before the 1997 general election; Wave D : May 1997. The initial wave was face-to-face and subsequent waves by telephone. In addition, there is geographic information derived from the 1991 Census and turnout and electoral registration information derived from a check against the marked-up Electoral Registers. Standard Measures LibAuthA is the BSA version of the libertarian-authoritarian scale. LibAutBA is the BGES version of the libertarian-authoritarian scale. LftRighA is the BSA version of the left-right scale. LftRigBA is the BGES version of the left-right scale. For the third edition of this study (December 1999), two variables were corrected: the variables affected are LIBAUTBA and LFTRIGBA. These are the scale scores for the 'balanced' or 'BGES-version' of the Left-Right and Libertarian-Authoritarian scales (see also SN:3921, <i>British Social Attitudes Survey, 1996</i>). For further details please see note and read file documentation for this study.

Multi-stage stratified random sample

Face-to-face interview

Telephone interview

Self-completion

A face-to-face interview using CAPI was conducted for Wave A. A telephone interview using CATI was