Swedish National Election Studies (SNES)

University of Gothenburg

The Swedish National Election Studies Program was initiated by Jörgen Westerståhl and Bo Särlvik in the mid 1950s, and the first studies were carried out in conjunction with the local elections 1954 and the parliamentary election in 1956. In all parliamentary elections since 1956 - including the ATP-referendum in 1957, the Nuclear Power referendum in 1980, the EU-referendum in 1994 and the European Parliament Elections in 1995 and 1999 - a large representative sample of eligible voters has been interviewed. Since 1973 the basic design has been a rolling panel in which half of the sample has been interviewed in connection with the previous election, and the other half in connection with the succeeding election. The election studies have, with the exception of the 1976 study, come into being through a close collaboration between the Department of Political Science at Göteborg University and Statistics Sweden (SCB). The 1976 study was conducted by the Department of Political Science in Uppsala in collaboration with SCB. The Survey Research Centre of Statistics Sweden is responsible for the sampli

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The Swedish National Election Studies Program was initiated by Jörgen Westerståhl and Bo Särlvik in the mid 1950s, and the first studies were carried out in conjunction with the local elections 1954 and the parliamentary election in 1956. In all parliamentary elections since 1956 - including the ATP-referendum in 1957, the Nuclear Power referendum in 1980, the EU-referendum in 1994 and the European Parliament Elections in 1995 and 1999 - a large representative sample of eligible voters has been interviewed. Since 1973 the basic design has been a rolling panel in which half of the sample has been interviewed in connection with the previous election, and the other half in connection with the succeeding election. The election studies have, with the exception of the 1976 study, come into being through a close collaboration between the Department of Political Science at Göteborg University and Statistics Sweden (SCB). The 1976 study was conducted by the Department of Political Science in Uppsala in collaboration with SCB. The Survey Research Centre of Statistics Sweden is responsible for the sampling, their permanent interview organisation performs the field work, and they also collect additional data from public registers. The research project at the Department of Political Science is responsible for the general planning of the studies, the construction of the questionnaires, and the analysis and presentation of data. In 1956, respondents were interviewed twice, once before and once after election day. From the 1960 study onwards, with the exception of the 1970 study, field work has been carried out in two stages. The total sample is split into two subsamples of equal size. One subsample is contacted for personal interviews during the field work stage preceding the election. Respondents in this subsample are contacted again after election day through a short mail questionnaire. The primary purpose of this mail questionnaire is to obtain information about the final vote decision of these respondents. The second subsample is contacted for personal interview during the weeks immediately after the election. The 1970 election study differs from the others because the entire survey was carried out after election day. During this period, a great number of questions have been asked. Some questions are repeated in all surveys, which makes it possible to study changes over a period of nearly fifty years, and there are also questions specific to one or two surveys. The central questions in an election study are always those on party preferences. Therefore, all surveys contain questions on: voting habits, party preferences, and voting in both current and previous elections. Voter participation is also checked using electoral registers. Other recurring questions cover political interest and party identification. Social background factors such as information about the respondents´ date of birth, sex, marital status, education, occupation and trade union affiliation are also available. Show less..