DOI: 10.3886/icpsr07871
title: British Election Study: October 1974, Scottish Cross-Section
title: Archival Version

description: The October 1974 Scottish cross-section is part of a
 continuing series of surveys of the British electorate, begun by David
 Butler and Donald Stokes at Nuffield College, Oxford, in 1963, and
 continued at the University of Essex. Respondents were interviewed
 between October 15, 1974 and January 20, 1975. Some of the respondents
 had been interviewed in the February 1974 cross-section or in the
 October 1974 cross-section, but the majority of respondents were first
 interviewed in the Scottish cross-section. For the Scottish
 cross-section, respondents answered questions relating to the mass
 media (e.g., attention to newspapers and television and perceived bias
 in newspapers), their first and second choices in the October 1974
 general election, and their opinions of the Conservative, Labour,
 Liberal, and Scottish Nationalist political parties (e.g., perceived
 differences among parties, knowledge of party position/record, party
 identification, and the strength of party preference). Respondents
 also were asked for their views on a range of social issues relating
 to domestic and foreign affairs, with emphasis on the economy and the
 Common Market. Respondents were then asked how the parties stood on
 each issue, and how much that influenced the respondent's vote. Some
 of the issues included rising prices, strikes, unemployment, pensions,
 housing, North Sea oil, the Common Market, social services,
 nationalization, wage controls, voluntary agreements, devolution, the
 Scottish Assembly, and Scottish Government. Respondents were then
 asked to agree or disagree with the suggestions that government
 should: establish comprehensives, increase cash to health service,
 repatriate immigrants, control land, increase foreign aid, toughen on
 crime, control pollution, give workers more say, curb Communists,
 spend on poverty, redistribute wealth, decentralize power, preserve
 the countryside, and maintain Catholic schools. Respondents were also
 asked for their attitudes about their personal financial status,
 change/getting ahead, life in general, today's standards, local
 government, their own occupations, and the government's achievements.
 They also gave their predictions for Britain's future economy and of
 the outcome of the October election, and compared Britain's government
 and industry with those of Europe. Background information includes
 age, sex, marital status, religion, place of residence during
 childhood, subjective class, forced subjective class, family class,
 housing tenure, type and length of residence, employment status,
 degree of responsibility in and training for job (respondent and
 spouse), experience of unemployment in household, income, trade union
membership (respondent and spouse), and socioeconomic group.
description: Respondents were selected into a multistage,
disproportionate, stratified, clustered sample.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: British Election Study: October 1974, Scottish Cross-Section
description: Scottish electorate.
description: personal interview(1) The data and accompanying documentation are
 disseminated, under an agreement with the UK Data Archive, exactly as
 they were received, without modification by ICPSR. This agreement also
 provides that ICPSR will disseminate these data only for use within
 member institutions. (2) Users are advised that the following studies
 were provided by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
 Survey Archive, University of Essex, England:
 
 British Election Study: February 1974, Cross-Section (ICPSR 7868)
 British Election Study: 1969-1970, February 1974 Panel (ICPSR 7869)
 British Election Study: October 1974, Cross-Section (ICPSR 7870)
 British Election Study: October 1974, Scottish Cross-Section
 (ICPSR 7871)
 British Election Study: EEC Referendum Study, 1975 (ICPSR 7872)
 British Election Study: May 1979, Cross Section (ICPSR 8196)
 British Election Study: [June] 1983 (ICPSR 8409)
British Social Attitudes Survey, 1986 (ICPSR 8910)