Questionnaires
A standard questionnaire instrument containing a core module of identical or functionally equivalent questions. Wherever possible, theoretical concepts are measured with multiple items in order to enable testing for construct validity. The wording of items is determined by balancing various criteria, including: the research themes emphasized in the survey, the comprehensibility of the item to lay respondents, and the proven effectiveness of the item when tested in previous surveys.
Survey Topics:
1.Economic Evaluations: What is the economic condition of the nation and your family: now, over the last five years, and in the next five years?
2.Trust in institutions: How trustworthy are public institutions, including government branches, the media, the military, and NGOs.
3.Social Capital: Membership in private and public groups, the frequency and degree of group participation, trust in others, and influence of guanxi.
4.Political Participatio: Voting in elections, national and local, country-specific voting patterns, and active participation in the political process as well as demonstrations and strikes. Contact with government and elected officials, political organizations, NGOs and media.
5.Electoral Mobilization: Personal connections with officials, candidates, and political parties; influence on voter choice.
6.Psychological Involvement and Partisanship: Interest in political news coverage, impact of government policies on daily life, and party allegiance.
7.Traditionalism: Importance of consensus and family, role of the elderly, face, and woman in theworkplace.
8.Democratic Legitimacy and Preference for Democracy: Democratic ranking of present and previous regime, and expected ranking in the next five years; satisfaction with how democracy works, suitability of democracy; comparisons between current and previous regimes, especially corruption; democracy and economic development, political competition, national unity, social problems, military government, and technocracy.
9.Efficacy, Citizen Empowerment, System Responsiveness: Accessibility of political system: does a political elite prevent access and reduce the ability of people to influence the government.
10.Democratic vs. Authoritarian Values: Level of education and political equality, government leadership and superiority, separation of executive and judiciary.
11.Cleavage: Ownership of state-owned enterprises, national authority over local decisions, cultural insulation, community and the individual.
12.Belief in Procedural Norms of Democracy: Respect of procedures by political leaders: compromise, tolerance of opposing and minority views.
13.Social-Economic Background Variables: Gender, age, marital status, education level, years of formal education, religion and religiosity, household, income, language and ethnicity.
14.Interview Record: Gender, age, class, and language of the interviewer, people present at the interview; did the respondent: refuse, display impatience, and cooperate; the language or dialect spoken in interview, and was an interpreter present.