Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The study was designed to investigate political change in Great Britain using a panel technique. The main areas of investigation were the party system, campaign issues, and social class. Information on the political background of the respondent as well as extensive demographic data were also collected. Semantic differential questions were also included.

Interviewing was conducted in four waves. The first wave was in 1963, the second wave followed the 1964 General Election, the third wave followed the 1966 General Election, and the fourth wave followed the 1970 General Election. This study contains fourteen overlapping samples. The 1963 wave constitutes a national cross-section sample. For 1964 and 1966 there are electorate samples. The other eleven samples are panels generated by the interviewing of respondents. As a result of ESRC funding, this sub-series of the British Election Study has been rationalised, re-processed to the UKDA's A standard, linked to improved ICPSR documentation and had new user information created for it by the UKDA. Please see 44notes.xls and 44userguide.pdf for details.

Multi-stage stratified random sample

Parliamentary constituencies are the primary sampling units. See appendix in Political Change in Britain

Face-to-face interview