Research Methods

The survey was executed in two municipalities in the Netherlands, Norway, Italy and Switzerland. Over two years from 2023 to 2024, I designed a questionnaire, drew a random sample from the population, and planned and supervised the execution of the survey. In total, 62 students visited more than 7,000 addresses from the sample to conduct a Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) with respondents on political participation. Afterwards, I conducted statistical analyses in R Studio based on the collected data.

During the campaign period for the municipal elections in two selected municipalities in the Netherlands, Norway, Italy, and Switzerland, I shadowed politicians as they carried out their campaign activities. The purpose of this shadowing was to map their mobilisation efforts and observe how they interacted with citizens. In addition, I attended election debates to examine how competing candidates sought to distinguish themselves from one another. Finally, on election day, I conducted exit interviews with citizens to explore the reasoning behind their vote choices.

As part of the Downsizing My Democracy research project, I contribute to the creation of a new dataset that compiles information on elections across all administrative tiers in 23 advanced European democracies over a 30-year period (1990–2020). For each country, all governance tiers that exist nationwide and organise elections are included. Within these tiers, every administrative unit is represented, and each election held between 1990 and 2020 is coded as a separate unit of analysis.