Public Attitudes to Parliament (State of the Nation), 1972

<p>Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.</p>The purpose of this study was to assess public attitudes to Parliament and to Members of Parliament.<B>Main Topics</B>:<br> Attitudinal/Behavioural Questions<br> Respondents were asked for information about newspaper readership and interests, television viewing and interest, favoured subjects for discussion with family and friends, their general interest in politics, ways which they find most useful for finding out about Parliament, things they find most effective to do in order to change public policy and laws and who, from a given list of seventeen groups (Parliament, the Courts, the Queen, etc.), they consider most able or liable to best look after individual rights, to be most interested in ordinary people or about whom they know least.<br> Concerning Parliament itself, they were asked how interested they are in what goes on in Parliament and for their assessment of Parliament and how well it works. Each respondent was then given a self-completion questionnaire on which they were asked to rate both the present Parliament and the ideal Parliament on a number of characteristics (dull - lively, dignified - undignified, middle-class, etc.) using a seven-point scale. The respondent was asked for his assessment of the proper areas of concern for Parliament and of the effectiveness of Parliament's action in these areas, whether anything discussed in Parliament has personally affected the respondent or his family and friends, the extent of his knowledge of elections for Parliament, his agreement or disagreement with a group of statements concerning Parliament's relevance and importance of the House of Lords (with reasons for each), and his opinion of what should happen in Parliament.<br> Concerning Members of Parliament, the respondent was asked to rate the value of various jobs, including MP, doctor, trade union leader, etc., to the community as a whole using a four-point scale, to assess the influences of each job, and to outline the reasons he thought most MPs had for becoming MPs. On a self-completion questionnaire, he was asked to rate both his local MP and the ideal MP on a number of characteristics (hard-working - lazy, poorly paid - well paid, easy to talk to - difficult to talk to etc.) using a seven-point scale. A number of questions on the respondent's local MP give information on his opinion of the effectiveness and quality of the MP and on the amount of attention paid to the feelings of the voters in decision-making. The respondent is also asked to assess the relative importance of various jobs MPs do, the relative importance of various views the MP speaks for in Parliament (views of the constituency, of the party, the local party, the parliamentary party, his own views, etc.), and of the various methods employed by parties in choosing candidates to stand for Parliament. A self-assessment of party allegiance and of the strength of political feelings generally, and a listing of the respondent's political activities within the last two to three years conclude the survey.<br> Background Variables<br> Sex, marital status, whether employed, number of people in household, number of children with ages, occupational class on a five-pont scale, television area, school-leaving age, length of time at present address, type of accommodation and trade union membership