This appendix outlines the main methodological approaches taken in the British Political Participation Study.

The study encompassed the following aspects:

1. (a) a national citizen survey study of 1,578 respondents;

2. (b) community citizen surveys totalling 1,641 respondents in six localities selected so as to cover a range of typical communities;

3. (c) a series of community elite studies comprising a total of 321 questionnaire interviews across the same six localities;

4. (d) a series of ‘in-depth’ semi-structured interviews with key members of the elite in each of the same six localities conducted by the two principal researchers.

National study

Sampling and weighting

The national citizen survey was based on a sample of residents of Britain, south of the Caledonian Canal in northern Scotland, who were eighteen years or older. A two-stage selection procedure was used to choose 20 electors from each of 120 polling districts (N = 2,400). ‘Door-step’ enumeration and selection by interviewers ensured that non-electors and recently arrived electors were also included in the base sample with the correct probability of selection.

The 120 parliamentary constituencies from England, Wales and Scotland were selected from a list stratified by the following variables: region, population density, proportion of 1979 General Election Labour vote and proportion of population with professional qualifications. The second stage in the selection process entailed choosing one polling district within each constituency. Finally, 20 electors were selected using a random start, fixed interval procedure from the electoral lists for each of these polling districts.