Survey Methodology
Keyword(s):
This article addresses three dimensions for data collection: mode, space, and time. It considers the problems of adequately representing persons by ensuring high response rates and measuring opinions validly and reliably through the design of high-quality questions. The advent of the internet and the World Wide Web is dramatically expanding the repertoire for survey research. The evidence suggests that the forces driving response rate down are largely orthogonal to substantive political choices. Surveys overrepresent political interest and its correlates and so may replicate class and other barriers to political participation.