Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The study of Scottish and Welsh council candidates was carried out in tandem with the principal investigators' study of candidates for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly (held at the Archive under SN:4058). Many commentators suggested that the establishment of the Parliament and Assembly would usher in a new style of politics, with a new type of politician. A postal survey of the attitudes, experience and individual characteristics of those standing in local authority elections allowed comparison and contrast of these politicians with candidates standing for the new national bodies.

Main Topics:

The dataset contains two files. One contains the responses to a postal survey of a sample of Scottish council candidates, the other responses to a postal survey of Welsh council candidates. Only the four main political parties in each country were included in the survey. The questionnaires focused on the candidates' political experience, opinions about constitutional change and the new Parliament/Assembly, and general political attitudes. In addition, the dataset includes information on the social characteristics of respondents. The questionnaire is very similar to that sent to Scottish Parliament/Welsh Assembly candidates (see SN:4058). Standard Measures Likert scales of social and political values were used.

Purposive selection/case studies

Postal survey