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Participation and Democracy: Dynamics, Causes ... - Jacobs University

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European Social Survey<br />

The European Social Survey (ESS) is a large-scale survey project covering attitudes <strong>and</strong><br />

values in various European countries. Applying a high-quality methodology, the surveys<br />

are “designed to chart <strong>and</strong> explain the interaction between Europe's changing institutions<br />

<strong>and</strong> the attitudes, beliefs <strong>and</strong> behaviour patterns of its diverse populations” 29 .<br />

The fieldwork in the first round, completed in December 2002, encompassed 22<br />

countries: EU’s 15 old member states (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finl<strong>and</strong>, France,<br />

Germany, Greece, Irel<strong>and</strong>, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherl<strong>and</strong>s, Portugal, Spain, Sweden,<br />

<strong>and</strong> the UK), four new member states (Czech Republic, Hungary, Pol<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> Slovenia)<br />

plus Switzerl<strong>and</strong>, Norway <strong>and</strong> Israel. The second round has been completed in<br />

December 2004, increasing the number of countries to 26 (first round participants plus<br />

Icel<strong>and</strong>, Slovakia, Ukraine <strong>and</strong> Estonia; Israel dropped out). The ESS samples are<br />

representative probability samples, covering persons aged 15+ years who are residents<br />

of the country, regardless of citizenship or nationality. The surveys were conducted in<br />

face-to-face interviews; the sample sizes of the first ESS round vary from 950<br />

respondents in France to 2.250 in Denmark.<br />

The first round European Social Survey asked the following question on elitechallenging<br />

activism:<br />

“There are different ways of trying to improve things in [country] or help prevent things<br />

from going wrong. During the last 12 months, have you done any of the following?<br />

(1) Signed a petition<br />

(2) Taken part in a lawful public demonstration<br />

(3) Boycotted certain products<br />

(4) Deliberately bought certain products for political, ethical or environmental reasons<br />

(5) Participated in illegal protest activities.”<br />

The ESS 2004 wave includes the first three of the five items.<br />

29 See the study description at http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/. The project website also provides<br />

more detailed information about the European Social Survey <strong>and</strong> its methodology.<br />

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