DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02618.v2
title: British General Election Study: Ethnic Minority Survey, 1997
title: Version 2

description: The 705 respondents to the Ethnic Minority Survey are a subset of the BRITISH GENERAL ELECTION CROSS-SECTION SURVEY, 1997 (ICPSR 2615) with an ethnic boost generated by a random screening survey. Eligible ethnic minority respondents for this survey were those who considered themselves to be Black, Indian, Pakistani, or Bangladeshi. The aims of this survey were (1) to measure the extent to which ethnic minority voters are integrated into the electoral process, (2) to evaluate, after taking into account social background, whether members of the main ethnic minorities vote differently from each other and from their white counterparts, (3) to examine whether the political attitudes of ethnic minority voters differ significantly from those of white voters, and (4) to explore whether members of ethnic minorities are influenced by different considerations than their white counterparts in deciding how to vote, and to evaluate in particular the importance of issues of race and immigration in voting behavior of ethnic minority and white voters. Fieldwork was conducted between May 1, 1997, the day of the 1997 British general election, and August 1997. Respondents were asked for their opinions on the existence of prejudice against them, recent improvements in Britain for minorities, the role of the government in improving conditions for minorities, the effectiveness of laws against racial discrimination and racial violence, school programs tailored for minority students, Britain's blasphemy law, state funding of religious schools, the stances of British political parties toward minorities, and the presence of minority figures in British politics. Additionally, topics covered in the Cross-Section Survey include the 1997 election campaign, participation in 1997 local elections, political knowledge, trust in government, images of British leadership, and views on British political parties, the European Union, Northern Ireland, nuclear weapons, unemployment, inflation, nationalization and privatization of companies, redistribution of income, women's rights, the role of government in social policy, abortion, ethnic minorities, the British economy, and the future of governmental institutions such as the House of Lords. Background information on respondents includes age, sex, race, ethnicity, political party, political orientation, marital status, number of members in household, social class, employment history, health insurance status, citizenship, country of birth, voter registration and participation history, household income, education, religion, parents' employment history, parents' voting behavior, spouse's employment history, and union membership.
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS1: Dataset
description: British General Election Survey Series
description: (1) The data are provided as an SPSS portable file. (2) This collection has not been processed by ICPSR staff. ICPSR is distributing the data and documentation for this collection in essentially the same form in which they were received. When appropriate, hardcopy documentation has been converted to machine-readable form and variables have been recoded to ensure respondents' anonymity. (3) The codebook, frequencies, user guide, and data collection instruments are provided as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided through the ICPSR Website on the Internet.