DOI: 10.3886/icpsr07870
title: British Election Study: October 1974, Cross-Section
title: Archival Version

description: The October 1974 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. For the October 1974 Cross-Section survey,
 2,365 British electors were interviewed, of which 1,674 had also been
 interviewed in the February 1974 cross-section, although this is NOT a
 panel file. As with other surveys in the series, electors in Northern
 Ireland and the Scottish Highlands and Islands were excluded from the
 sampling frame. Interviewed in October 1974 (and stretching to January
 1975 in order to boost the response rate), 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, Scottish Nationalist,
 and Plaid Cymru political parties (e.g., perceived difference 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 include rising prices, strikes, unemployment, pensions,
 housing, North Sea oil, taxation, the Common Market, social services,
 nationalization, wage controls, and the amount of power held by unions
 and by big business. 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 occupation,
 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. Respondents were asked if they felt the following had gone too
 far: sex and race equality, police handling of demonstrations, law
 breakers, pornography, modern teaching methods, abortion, welfare
 benefits, and military cuts. 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, and preserve the
 countryside. Background information includes age, sex, marital status,
 place of residence during childhood, subjective class, forced
 subjective class, family class, 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,
self-weighting, stratified probability sample.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: British Election Study: October 1974, Cross-Section
description: The eligible British electorate living south of the
Caledonian Canal and excluding Northern Ireland.
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)