Scottish Election Study, 2011

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner. The 2011 Scottish Parliament elections took place against a very different backdrop from the previous Holyrood elections. The SNP had governed as a minority since 2007, a Coalition Government in London had been in power since May 2010 and the economic context worsened significantly during the previous parliament. If attribution of responsibility was blurred in past elections, the 2011 election was likely to see it obscured to an even greater degree. The Scottish Election Study, 2011 (SES) was specifically designed to explore the manner and extent to which the Scottish electorate is able to punish/reward the Scottish governing party or Westminster governing parties within the context of the still developing multilevel governance arrangements. Addressing a related issue, the SES contained a path-breaking experiment designed to assess Scottish 'multilevel' party identification. Additionally, the debates on Scotland's contested constitutional status were assessed using the questions used in 2007 and in many previous studies but also included more nuanced questions, especially taking account of recent debates on Scotland's constitutional status. Finally, the SES contained modules designed to assess voter reactions to the ballot problems associated with the 2007 elections and voter understanding of and voting behaviour in the same-day Alternative Vote referendum. The 2011 SES continued a landmark series of election studies that provides solid value for money using an internet panel (including respondents from the 2007 study). To benefit the academic and practitioner communities, the data were released online through the SES 2011 website within months of collection. Further information about the project can also be found on the ESRC's Scottish Election Study 2011 award webpage. Main Topics:The SES 2011 followed a two-wave, pre- and post-election, panel design, with the same respondents surveyed at the outset of the campaign and immediately after polling day. The SES was conducted over the internet, with YouGov conducting the fieldwork. Using YouGov, the team were able to add an additional component to the SES survey by re-interviewing respondents from the 2007 SES. Thus, in addition to the pre- and post-election panel, the team were also able to include a 2007-2011 panel component in the SES. The questionnaires developed by the research team sought to retain continuity over time and further develop the SES time series by incorporating as much of the question wording from the 2007 SES as the 2011 aims and objectives allowed. The core battery of 'standard' survey questions, measuring relevant predispositions were included in the survey. In addition to the core battery, new questions were developed to further probe respondent constitutional preferences and responsibility attributions (reflecting the 2011 focus on the multilevel nature of the Scottish elections). Additionally, as noted in a previous section, the 2011 SES included several 'split-half' survey experiments designed to explore multilevel party identification and understanding of political processes