The Spanish Political Attitudes Panel (12 waves)

Area of Science:

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Public Opinion Research

Background:

• Traditional panel surveys often prioritize socio-economic factors.
• Understanding longitudinal changes in political attitudes is crucial for democratic studies.
• The Spanish context presents unique opportunities to study political shifts due to significant events.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce the Spanish Political Attitudes Dataset (POLAT Panel) as a unique longitudinal resource.
• To highlight the dataset's focus on political variables over socio-economic ones.
• To enable analysis of political attitude dynamics over a decade.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal panel survey design.
• 12 waves of data collection from 2010 to 2020.
• Tracking 4,633 Spanish individuals' political attitudes and behaviors.

Main Results:

• The POLAT Panel offers a decade of individual-level data on political attitudes.
• It captures changes in public opinion coinciding with major events like the financial crisis, protests, and the rise of new political parties.
• The dataset allows for the examination of political attitude evolution during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Conclusions:

• The POLAT Panel is a rich resource for analyzing the interplay of individual experiences and societal events on political attitudes.
• It provides unparalleled insights into the dynamics of political change in Spain.
• Researchers can leverage this dataset to study the long-term effects of socio-political phenomena on citizen behavior.