Summary information

Study title

Finnish Local Government Barometer 2008: Members of Municipal Councils

Creator

Foundation for Municipal Development

Study number / PID

FSD2468 (FSD)

urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD2468 (URN)

10.60686/t-fsd2468 (DOI)

Data access

Restricted

Series

Finnish Local Government Barometers

The Foundation for Municipal Development conducts annual surveys covering opinions on local (municipal) democracy, local government, local economy and services. Respondents are generally local inhabitants, municipal managers and the chairpersons of municipal boards. The data enable comparison between the opinions of the inhabitants on the one hand, and the managers and chairpersons on the other. The surveys also study municipal managers' views on the policies of the Government of Finland and the functionality of local co-operation. The survey series was launched in 1992. The FSD collections...

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Abstract

The survey charted the respondents' attitudes towards municipalities, municipal administration, service provision, and elections. First, the respondents were presented with a set of attitudinal statements on various Finnish municipalities, municipal self-government, consolidation of municipalities, privatising, and municipal decision-making. The respondents were also queried how adequate or inadequate different services (sports services, education, child day care, care of the elderly, etc.) in their municipalities were in terms of demand. They were also asked whether the responsibility for organising municipal services should be assumed by individual municipalities or jointly by several municipalities, and whether the private sector should provide municipal services more in the future. In addition, the respondents gave their opinions about various statements on municipal management and municipal elections. The statements probed views on topics such as advance polling stations, online voting, and the reduction of voting age. Background variables included the respondent's gender, party preference, municipality size, and regional council of municipality of residence.

Methodology

Data collection period

16/04/2008 - 27/05/2008

Country

Finland

Time dimension

Longitudinal: Trend/Repeated cross-section

Analysis unit

Individual

Universe

Councillors of Finnish municipalities

Excludes: the Åland Islands

Sampling procedure

Probability: Stratified

Kind of data

Quantitative

Data collection mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Paper

Access

Publisher

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Publication year

2009

Terms of data access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Related publications

  • Kansalaismielipide ja kunnat: ilmapuntari 2008 (2008). Helsinki: Kunnallisalan kehittämissäätiö. Polemia-sarja; 69.
  • Kunnon valtuutetut? Ilmapuntari 2008, osa 2 (2008). Helsinki: Kunnallisalan kehittämissäätiö. Polemia-sarja; 70.
  • Laiho, Anna (2013) Kuntalaisten ja kunnanvaltuutettujen mielipiteet kunnallisista palveluista 2000-luvulla. Turku: Turun yliopisto. Sosiaalipolitiikan pro gradu -tutkielma.