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European Election Studies (EES) 1994

The research design for this study was more elaborate than that for any of the previous European Election Studies. In addition to a study of voters, the research design incorporated a study of candidates for the European Parliament elections, a study of members of the European Parliament, and studies of members of national parliaments. These four components of EES94 were linked with common questions about policy preferences and other matters. Thus, the 1994 election study is not just a study of voting but also a study of representation.

In addition, the Euromanifesto project collected and coded party manifestos from the relevant parties running in the 1994 European Parliament Elections.

The Voter Study 1994 consisted of a single wave of interviews, conducted immediately following the European elections of June 1994, with freshly drawn samples in all member states of the European Union. As in 1989, the questions were added to a special post-election Eurobarometer (EB 41.1). Variables of three other surrounding Eurobarometer surveys are also documented and included. The first two of these (EB 40 and EB 41) were realized before the European elections, in October-November 1993 and April-May 1994. The third was (EB 42), conducted in November-December 1994. The number of interviews in the different countries was in each of the three waves approximately 1000. For Luxembourg, this number was lower, approximately 500. Sample size in the United Kingdom was approximately 1300, of which approximately 300 interviews were conducted in Northern Ireland. The total number of interviews conducted for the four waves amounts to almost 52000.

The questionnaires were identical in all member states (apart from unavoidable variations due to language and institutional differences). A large number of questions were identical to those used in the 1989, 1999 and 2004 study, thus permitting over-time comparisons of voter behavior in the 1989, 1994, 1999 and 2004 elections.

While the main wave is the post-electoral survey, the other three interviews are partially overlapping in contents. Some of the questions have been included in two, a few in three or all four of the interviews, thus offering opportunities for longitudinal comparison of voting behaviour and voter orientations. The four waves of interviews constitute a repeated cross-section study, that is, they have been conducted on independently drawn random samples of the population of the member states of the European Community.

The selection of topics and questions includes: electoral behavior including questions on party choices, past voting behavior, voting behavior at the national level, party preferences, and propensity to support particular parties; general political attitudes and behavior based on a question of interest in politics, campaign, most important problems, attitudes regarding EU, left-right self-placement, placement of parties; background characteristics including gender, age, education, religion, media consumption.

This study has been made possible by grants from the German National Science (DFG), the Dutch National Science Foundation (NWO), the University of Amsterdam, the University of Mannheim, and with the cooperation of the Commission of the European Communities.

For an European Election Study (EES) Trend File covering the voter studies from 1989 to 2004 see also the website of Michael Marsh and Slava Mikhaylov at Trinity College Dublin.

As part of the European Representation Study, three elite studies were carried out:

Study of Members of the European Parliament 1996

The study was conducted among representatives of the European Parliament of the following countries: Belgium (BE); France (FR); Germany (DE); Greece (GR); Ireland (IE); Italy (IT); Luxembourg (LU); Netherlands (NL); Portugal (PT); Spain (ES); Sweden (SE). The data was collected between May and June 1996. The survey was  financially supported by the German Science Foundation.

European Candidates Study 1994

The study investigates candidates running for the European Parliament 1994. The number of candidates varied from country to country. Since not all candidates were known at the beginning of the study, not all addresses were available. While some national investigators decided in favour of a sample of the candidates, others decided to opt for a census of the candidates. Thus, great variation of the return rates emerged from country to country.

Members of National Parliaments Study 1996

The study was conducted among representatives of the national parliament in the following countries: Belgium (BE), France (FR), Germany (DE), Greece (GR), Ireland (IE), Italy (IT), Luxembourg (LU), Netherlands (NL), Portugal (PT), Spain (ES), Sweden (SE). The data was collected between April 1996 and July 1997.

A detailed documentation of the three studies can be also found in Appendix 1 of Schmitt and Thomassen, eds. (1999), Political Representation and Legitimacy in the European Union, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Please see here.

  • Schmitt and Thomassen, eds. (1999), “Political Representation and Legitimacy in the European Union.” Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Richard Katz and Bernhard Wessels, eds. (1999). “The European Parliament, the National Parliaments and European Integration.” Oxford: Oxford University Press.