Dutch Parliamentary Election Study (DPES) Series

Investigator(s): Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research (ZWO), et. al.

The Dutch Parliamentary Election Studies (DPES) are national surveys carried out under the auspices of the Dutch Electoral Research Foundation (SKON). These surveys have been conducted since 1970, when the Dutch Election Study dealt with the parliamentary election in addition to the Dutch Provincial Council election. Studies since 1971 were conducted before and after the national parliamentary elections. Panel studies are also conducted within the framework of the DPES. Many questions are replicated across studies, although each has questions not asked in the others. The major substantive areas consistently covered include the respondents' attitudes toward and expectations of the government and its effectiveness in both domestic and foreign policy, the most important problems facing the people of the Netherlands, the respondents' voting behavior and participation history, and his/her knowledge of and faith in the nation's political leaders. Special topics included on a more limited basis focus on abortion, euthanasia, the income gap, the presence of nuclear plants, those seeking asylum in the Netherlands, ethnic minorities, the environment, the North America Treaty Organization (NATO), and the European Union (EU). Production of these data has been carried out by the Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research (ZWO), Dutch Inter-university Election Study Workgroup (NKO), SKON, Statistics Netherlands (CBS), and Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS). These data are distributed by both ICPSR and Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS), The Hague, the Netherlands.