Which members? Using cross-national surveys to study party membership

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 679-690 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aldo F Ponce ◽  
Susan E Scarrow
Keyword(s):  
Party Membership ◽  
National Surveys ◽  
Cross National

scholarly journals Party Responsiveness to Public Opinion in Young Democracies

2021 ◽  
pp. 003232172199363
Author(s):  
Raimondas Ibenskas ◽  
Jonathan Polk
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Surveys ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Established Democracies ◽  
Expert Surveys ◽  
Cross National

Are political parties in young democracies responsive to the policy preferences of the public? Compared to extensive scholarship on party responsiveness in established democracies, research on party responsiveness in young democracies is limited. We argue that weaker programmatic party–voter linkages in post-communist democracies create incentives for parties to respond to their supporters rather than the more general electorate. Such responsiveness occurs in two ways. First, parties follow shifts in the mean position of their supporters. Second, drawing on the research on party–voter congruence, we argue that parties adjust their policy positions to eliminate previous incongruence between themselves and their supporters. Analyses based on a comprehensive dataset that uses expert surveys, parties’ manifestoes and election surveys to measure parties’ positions, and several cross-national and national surveys to measure voters’ preferences provide strong support for this argument.

Using the Total Survey Error Paradigm to Improve Cross-National Research on Religion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom W. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Survey Research ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Functional Equivalence ◽  
National Surveys ◽  
Survey Error ◽  
Comparison Error ◽  
Traditional Approaches ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
Cross National

Cross-national research is an absolute necessity if we are to understand contemporary human societies in general and the role of religion in particular. To be useful, comparative survey research needs to meet high scientific standards of reliability and validity and achieve functional equivalence across surveys. This chapter examines how well-designed and well-executed cross-national/cultural survey research can best minimize error and maximize equivalence. The chapter first introduces the concept of total survey error (TSE), including interactions among the error components, its application when multiple surveys are involved, and comparison error across cross-national surveys. Second, obtaining functional equivalence and similarity in cross-national surveys is discussed. Third, the challenges of doing cross-national surveys are considered, as well as how combining traditional approaches for maximizing functional equivalence with the utilization of TSE can minimize comparison error and maximize comparative reliability and validity. Fourth, attention is given to minimizing comparison error in question wordings in general. Special attention is given to dealing with differences in language, structure, and culture. Lastly, specific issues relating to studying religion cross-nationally are examined.

Income Measures in Cross-National Surveys: Problems and Solutions

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 355-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J Donnelly ◽  
Grigore Pop-Eleches
Keyword(s):  
Household Income ◽  
World Values Survey ◽  
Opinion Survey ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Public Opinion Survey ◽  
National Surveys ◽  
The World ◽  
Problems And Solutions ◽  
Income Measure ◽  
Cross National

Comparable household income measures are crucial for most social science analyses of cross-national public opinion survey data. However, income questions in many cross-national surveys suffer from comparability and interpretability limitations that have not been adequately addressed by the existing literature. In this article, we examine the income measure in one major survey, the World Values Survey (WVS), arguing that a variety of problems arise when drawing inferences—descriptive or causal, individual or aggregate—using the standard ten-category measure. We then propose and implement a number of corrections to these potential biases and present a series of diagnostics that confirm the importance of our proposed corrections. We conclude by documenting some of the same challenges in the income measures used in other cross-national surveys. The accompanying data set can be merged with the WVS to make better use of the income measure.

scholarly journals Auntie Knows Best? Public Broadcasters and Current Affairs Knowledge

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 719-739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Soroka ◽  
Blake Andrew ◽  
Toril Aalberg ◽  
Shanto Iyengar ◽  
James Curran ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Propensity Score ◽  
Public Service ◽  
News Media ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Media Consumption ◽  
Public Financing ◽  
National Surveys ◽  
National Differences ◽  
Current Affairs ◽  
Cross National

Public service broadcasters (PSBs) are a central part of national news media landscapes, and are often regarded as specialists in the provision of hard news. But does exposure to public versus commercial news influence citizens’ knowledge of current affairs? This question is investigated in this article using cross-national surveys capturing knowledge of current affairs and media consumption. Propensity score analyses test for effects of PSBs on knowledge, and examine whether PSBs vary in this regard. Results indicate that compared to commercial news, PSBs have a positive influence on knowledge of hard news, though not all PSBs are equally effective in this way. Cross-national differences are related to factors such asde jureindependence, proportion of public financing and audience share.

scholarly journals A Common Left-Right Scale for Voters and Parties in Europe

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Lo ◽  
Sven-Oliver Proksch ◽  
Thomas Gschwend
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
Choice Model ◽  
Scaling Method ◽  
National Surveys ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Systematic Biases ◽  
European Election ◽  
Political Groups ◽  
Cross National

This article presents a scaling approach to jointly estimate the locations of voters, parties, and European political groups on a common left-right scale. Although most comparative research assumes that cross-national comparisons of voters and parties are possible, few correct for systematic biases commonly known to exist in surveys or examine whether survey data are comparable across countries. Our scaling method addresses scale perception in surveys and links cross-national surveys through new bridging observations. We apply our approach to the 2009 European Election Survey and demonstrate that the improvement in party estimates that one gains from fixing various survey bias issues is significant. Our scaling strategy provides left-right positions of voters and of 162 political parties, and we demonstrate that variables based on rescaled voter and party positions on the left-right dimension significantly improve the fit of a cross-national vote choice model.

Compulsory Voting and Dissatisfaction with Democracy

2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 843-854 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shane P. Singh
Keyword(s):  
Natural Experiment ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Surveys ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
Cross National

Compulsory voting is often linked to pro-democracy orientations in the public. However, there is reason to question the strength and universality of this link. Engaging research on the effects of coercion and punishment, this article argues that forced participation inflates the tendency of those with negative orientations towards democracy to see the democratic system as illegitimate, and to be dissatisfied with democracy. The study finds support for these expectations in analyses of three separate cross-national surveys and a natural experiment. Compulsory voting heightens dissatisfaction with democracy within key segments of the population.

scholarly journals Explaining Inconsistencies in the Education Distributions of Ten Cross-National Surveys – the Role of Methodological Survey Characteristics

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 379-409
Author(s):  
Verena Ortmanns
Keyword(s):  
Labour Force ◽  
Measurement Instrument ◽  
The European Union ◽  
National Surveys ◽  
Standard Classification ◽  
Specific Education ◽  
Predominant Effect ◽  
Cross National

AbstractSurveys measuring the same concept using the same measure on the same population at the same point in time should result in highly similar results. If this is not the case, this is a strong sign of lacking reliability, resulting in non-comparable data across surveys. Looking at the education variable, previous research has identified inconsistencies in the distributions of harmonised education variables, using the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), across surveys within the same countries and years. These inconsistencies are commonly explained by differences in the measurement, especially in the response categories of the education question, and in the harmonisation when classifying country-specific education categories into ISCED. However, other methodological characteristics of surveys, which we regard as ‘containers’ for several characteristics, may also contribute to this finding. We compare the education distributions of nine cross-national surveys with the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS), which is used as benchmark. This study analyses 15 survey characteristics to better explain the inconsistencies. The results confirm a predominant effect of the measurement instrument and harmonisation. Different sampling designs also explain inconsistencies, but to a lesser degree. Finally, we discuss the results and limitations of the study and provide ideas for improving data comparability.

scholarly journals Sampling and fieldwork practices in Europe: Analysis of methodological documentation from 1,537 surveys in five cross-national projects, 1981-2017

Methodology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 186-207
Author(s):  
Piotr Jabkowski ◽  
Marta Kołczyńska
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
National Survey ◽  
Comparative Analyses ◽  
National Surveys ◽  
Samples And Sampling ◽  
Survey Methodologies ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Cross National

This article addresses the comparability of sampling and fieldwork with an analysis of methodological data describing 1,537 national surveys from five major comparative cross-national survey projects in Europe carried out in the period from 1981 to 2017. We describe the variation in the quality of the survey documentation, and in the survey methodologies themselves, focusing on survey procedures with respect to: 1) sampling frames, 2) types of survey samples and sampling designs, 3) within-household selection of target persons in address-based samples, 4) fieldwork execution and 5) fieldwork outcome rates. Our results show substantial differences in sample designs and fieldwork procedures across survey projects, as well as changes within projects over time. This variation invites caution when selecting data for analysis. We conclude with recommendations regarding the use of information about the survey process to select existing survey data for comparative analyses.

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