Romanian Election Panel Study

The Romania Election Panel Study was conducted in the couse of the project “The Effects of Ethnic Parties on National Unity: Polarisation vs Inclusion”, ESRC grant no. ES/L008947/1 led by Dr Anaïd Flesken. The aim of the project was to examine the impact of ethnic group-specific party campaigning on ethnic relations and social cohesion, to see whether and how the presence of ethnic parties affects the way people perceive the ethnic “other” and the nation. Is this effect positive, because ethnic parties as emancipatory vehicles increase the inclusion of ethnic minorities within the population? Or is it negative, because ethnic parties raise awareness of ethnic differences? The survey was conducted before and after the parliamentary election in Romania on 11 December 2016 as a case study on the effect of ethnic party campaigns in communities with different ethnic compositions: ethnic Romanians living in predominantly Hungarian counties, ethnic Romanians in the rest of the country where they are in the majority, and ethnic Hungarians especially from central and western Romania. Respondents were interviewed a first time five to six weeks before the election and another time four to five weeks after the election. The questionnaire consisted of questions on ethnic belonging, trust in individuals and institutions, perceptions of electoral integrity, opinions on parties, and items on life satisfaction and assessments of the current social and political conditions of Romania. While, due to questionnaire constraints, some questions were asked in only one of the interviews, others were recorded in both waves, allowing for analyses of changes over time. This Dataverse includes the complete survey data as well as replication data for the article "Ethnic parties, ethnic tensions? Results of an original election panel study" forthcoming in the American Journal of Political Science.