euandi 2014 dataset

Abstract

The euandi dataset is composed of two parts: a coded record of the political position of parties in the 2014 European Parliamentary elections, and data from a general survey of user profiles in the 2014 European Parliamentary elections. (1) Coded record of the political position of parties in the 2014 European Parliamentary elections: Political parties were asked to position themselves with regard to 30 statements on: (a) Welfare, family and health: welfare programmes maintained even if taxes increase, social assistance for EU immigrants, reduction of pension benefits; (b) Migration and immigration: fight against illegal immigration, immigration restriction, acceptance of European values by immigrants; (c) Society, religion and culture: legalisation of same sex marriages, support for stem cell research, legalisation of soft drugs, legalisation of euthanasia; (d) Finances and taxes: reduction of government spending, tax-raising powers for EU, tax increase on stock market gains; (e) Economy and work: reduction of workers' protection regulation, stronger support for unemployed, relaxation of austerity measures; (f) Environment, transport and energy: support for renewable sources of energy, promotion of public transport; (g) Law and order: restrictions of civil liberties, more severe punishment for criminals; access to abortion; (h) Foreign policy: EU should strengthen security and defence policy, EU should speak with one voice; (i) European integration; judgement about EU integration, issuance of Eurobonds, judgement about single European currency, less veto power for individual member states, referendum on EU-treaty; (j) Country specific items. Additionally coded was: country name, party name, and party abbreviation. (2) Data from a general survey of user profiles in the 2014 European Parliamentary elections: Users' position on political issues were surveyed: (a) Welfare, family and health: welfare programmes maintained even if taxes increase, social assistance for EU immigrants, reduction of pension benefits; (b) Migration and immigration: fight against illegal immigration, immigration restriction, acceptance of European values by immigrants; (c) Society, religion and culture: legalisation of same sex marriages, support for stem cell research, legalisation of soft drugs, legalisation of euthanasia; (d) Finances and taxes: reduction of government spending, tax-raising powers for EU, tax increase on stock market gains; (e) Economy and work: reduction of workers' protection regulation, stronger support for unemployed, relaxation of austerity measures; (f) Environment, transport and energy: support for renewable sources of energy, promotion of public transport; (g) Law and order: restrictions of civil liberties, more severe punishment for criminals; access to abortion; (h) Foreign policy: EU should strengthen security and defence policy, EU should speak with one voice; (i) European integration; judgement about EU integration, issuance of Eurobonds, judgement about single European currency, less veto power for individual member states, referendum on EU-treaty; (j) Country specific items. Basic socio-demographic information: age, gender, education level. Additionally coded: user-ID; day and time when user started and finished answering the questionnaire; user's geo-localisation based on IP address (NUTS-0-level); user's geo-localisation based on IP address (NUTS-3-level); version of the country questionnaire chosen by the user; perceived saliency of each issue; matching-score with the positions of the political parties; user's propensity to vote for a given party in his country of choice; position of the user on a socio-economic policy-dimension (socio-economic left to socio-economic right); position of the user on a European policy dimension (anti-EU-integration to pro-EU-integration); position of the user on libertarian and authoritarian policy dimension (liberal values to traditional values).