Study title

The data were collected as part of the Nordleg project which collected information from Nordic members of parliament. The survey charted the activity of the Members of the Finnish Parliament as well as their opinions and views on the Finnish society, politics, influence of the EU and other political actors in Finland, mass media, and gender equality in the Parliament. The respondents were first asked whether they thought that the majority of their party's voters would be in favour or against different suggestions made in public political discussion (e.g. bridging the income gap, prohibition of pornography, construction of additional nuclear power plants). Opinions were surveyed on the significance of tensions/conflicts between different groups in Finnish politics (e.g. rural residents - urban dwellers, the religious - the non-religious). Views were probed on whether the economy, environment, standard of living, equality of living conditions, gender equality, and individual freedom would improve or decline in the following 15 years. Opinions on the things and phenomena threatening the Finnish society at the time of the survey and in the future were investigated (e.g. environmental degradation, inflation, number of refugees, conflict between the Western world and the Muslim world, rise of political extremism, increasing political power of the EU). The respondents were requested to place themselves, the majority of the voters of their party, and other major parties in the Parliament on three different ten-point scales; the left-right scale, the environmental issues scale (not at all green - very green), and the EU attitude scale. Relating to media, the respondents were asked when they had last been interviewed in different media, whether the media presented a correct picture of the Parliament and its work, and whether a number of descriptions applied to the Finnish media (e.g. "The Finnish media treats MPs in a fair and proper manner"). Importance of different tasks...