D0763: Australian Election Study, 1993

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR(s)
Jones, Roger, The Australian National
University.

McAllister, Ian, University of New South Wales.
Denemark, David, University of Western Australia.
Gow, David, University of Queensland.

ABSTRACT
The 1993 Australian Election Study is the third in a series
of surveys beginning in 1987 which have been timed to coincide with
Australian Federal elections. The series also builds on the 1967, 1969
and 1979 Australian Political Attitudes Surveys. The Australian
Election Studies aim to provide a long-term perspective on stability
and change in the political attitudes and behaviour of the Australian
electorate, and investigate the changing social bases of Australian
politics as the economy and society modernise and change character. In
addition to these long-term goals they examine the political issues
prevalent in the election and assess their importance for the election
result.

The 1993 survey replicates many questions from the 1987 and 1990
Australian Election Studies, but also introduces a variety of new
questions including a section on foreign affairs and defence, and
attitudes to Federal and State government. As in previous surveys,
other sections covered the respondent's interest in the election
campaign and politics, their past and present political affiliation,
evaluation of parties and candidates, alignment with parties on
various election issues, evaluation of the economic situation and
economic policies, attitudes to a range of environmental issues, and
attitudes to contemporary social policy issues including equal
opportunity, censorship, migration, assistance for aborigines,
abortion, criminal law, expenditure on social services, the monarchy
and the Australian flag.

Background variables covered include level of education, employment
status, occupation, type of employer, position at workplace, trade
union membership, sex, year and place of birth, parents' birthplaces,
parents' political preferences, father's occupation, length of
residence in state or territory, religion, marital status, number of
children, income, and where applicable, the occupation, trade union
membership and political preference of the respondent's spouse.

SUBJECT TERMS
Defence; Economic policy; Elections; Environment;
International relations; Political parties; Politicians; Politics;
Social policy

UNIVERSE SAMPLED
persons on the Australian electoral roll at the close
of rolls, February 1993

SAMPLING PROCEDURE
stratified systematic random sample
The sample of electors for all Australia except South Australia was
drawn from the Commonwealth Electoral Roll by the Australian Electoral
Commission following the close of rolls for the 1993 election. The
Commission supplied name and address information only, to be used only
for this study. The South Australian sample was selected manually from
the alphabetical microfiche list of electors available for that state
in early February. All Australian citizens over the age of 18 years
are required to enrol and vote at federal elections.

The sample is stratified by State/Territory with an oversample in
Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania to ensure
adequate numbers for separate State analyses as well as national
analyses.

METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION
self-completion (mail out, mail back)

DIMENSIONS OF DATA SET
number of cases:
number of variables per case:
number of cards per case:

ACCESSIBILITY
A copy of the User Undertaking Form must be signed
before data may be accessed.

PUBLICATIONS
Australian Journal of Political Science, Special Issue,
1994, 29.

START YEAR: 1993
END YEAR: 1993

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: Australia