Political and affective polarisation in a democracy in crisis: The E-Dem panel survey dataset (Spain, 2018–2019)

Abstract

The E-DEM dataset provides information on the evolution of political and affective polarisation and electoral behaviour in the aftermath of the political crisis that shook the Spanish party system starting in 2014. The dataset is formed by a four-wave online panel survey of the Spanish voting age population between late October 2018 and May 2019. The four waves coincide with key moments in Spanish political life including local, regional, national, and European elections, as well as the conviction of Catalan secessionist leaders. It also covers the six-month period of the surge of Spain's new radical right party, Vox, spanning from shortly before its first major electoral success in Spain's most populous region, Andalusia, to its consolidation in the May 2019 European elections. The sample, which reflects the general population in terms of age, gender, and geographical province, consists of 1,484 panellists who completed the four waves, while the samples for individual waves are larger, ranging from 1,659 to 2,501 respondents. The data is especially useful for researchers who wish to explore dynamics of ideological and affective polarisation, factors that explain the rise of new parties, and for those investigating the evolution of political attitudes in general.

The crown: a survey about the Spanish monarchy

“…The completion rate of 0.11 reflects the proportion of those who completed the survey among all the eligible panel members who were invited to take the survey. 9 Compared to similar studies recently conducted in Spain, our completion rate is higher in some cases (Häusermann et al 2020) and lower in others (Hernández and Pannico 2020; Torcal et al 2020). In any case, in online surveys the completion rate should not be taken as a sign of the quality of the sample or panel but as an indication of the efficiency and business strategy of the panel provider (Willems, Van Ossenbruggen, and Vonk 2006;Callegaro and DiSogra 2008).…”

“…Together with other datasets recently made publicly available (e.g. Torcal et al 2020), this data allows researchers to explore new questions about Spain's political culture. Moreover, from a comparative perspective, these data complements other national and international efforts to examine individuals' understandings and evaluations of democracy's many dimensions (e.g.…”

The dynamics of political and affective polarisation: Datasets for Spain, Portugal, Italy, Argentina, and Chile (2019-2022)

“…We did not provide respondents with a “don't know” option except for questions that require some specific knowledge, where we expected such a response could be accurate and appropriate, such as questions on placing parties on the left-right scale or questions on political knowledge. More details on the strategy for dealing with nonresponse can be found in a previous Data in Brief article by the PI, Mariano Torcal, and his research team [5] .…”

Affective polarization in crosscutting communication networks: Offline and online evidence from Spain

“…The study leaned on large-N panel survey data from the E-DEM project (Torcal et al, 2020), which was collected in the months before the Spanish general parliamentary election and the EU election in 2019. The panel covered a random sample of 2,501 Spanish citizens surveyed up to four times from November 2018 to May 2019.…”

“…The empirical analyses were based on panel survey data from the E-DEM project (Torcal et al, 2020). These data provide exciting and relatively rare possibilities to isolate over time changes within the unit of analysis (individuals in this case) instead of compare mean differences between individuals, which is the confinement of cross-sectional data.…”