This special issue introduces the 2017 Social Networks and Social Resources module of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP). This module has been newly developed based on specific, ...up-to-date theoretical and methodological foundations. Within certain limits the designers of this module aimed at allowing comparisons with the previously fielded ISSP modules on Social Networks from 1986 and 2001. The module encompasses measures on social capital and social resources, assessed by both a position generator and questions on social resources coming from network members or formal organizations. They are complemented by other important social network dimensions capturing network structure and opportunities to access and mobilize social relationships. A strength of the new module is to assess multiple dimensions of social networks and social resources, which are crucial either for instrumental or expressive outcomes also introduced in the survey. The special issue includes first an introduction presenting the motivations behind the 2017 new module on Social Networks and Social Resources, the underlying model of the final questionnaire, a description focusing on the core of the social networks and resources measurement with some descriptive results on social capital, network support and sociability, and open the discussion toward some research questions it allows to examine in a comparative perspective.
Baltic and Nordic countries share historical and political connections as well as geographical proximity. Nevertheless, when their welfare regimes are compared, Baltic countries can be included in a ...post‐communist model that differs from the social‐democratic model of Nordic countries in many respects. This article focuses on one of these aspects, the opinion expressed towards the financial responsibility for the care of children and the elderly. In particular, childcare policies have been used to explain the development of a dual earner/dual career model in Nordic countries. Nevertheless, full‐time employment of women is widespread in Baltic countries too, although family policies and attitudes strongly differ from Nordic ones. Using data from the International Social Survey Programme (2012), we compare public attitudes towards who should cover the costs of caring in five Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark) and two Baltic ones (Latvia and Lithuania). We find remarkable differences between both groups of nations: citizens from Baltic countries consider the role of the family more important than their counterparts in Nordic countries. Results show Latvians holding the most familistic views in terms of covering costs, and Swedish people the least. Individual socio‐demographic variables are less important than national contexts in explaining these attitudes. We find important variations among the social‐democratic countries and, surprisingly, in the case of childcare, Sweden shows higher differences to Denmark than to Latvia and Lithuania. This finding suggests that the social‐democratic bloc in this respect is more heterogeneous than what is generally thought.
The Role of Government (ROG) module of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) is a unique high-quality data source for comparative research on political attitudes and orientations. This ...article describes the content, coverage, and history of the ISSP 2016 ROG module, which was fielded in 35 countries. The module has been fielded five times since its inception in 1985, and a majority of the items in the 2016 module are replicated from previous waves to facilitate comparisons over time. In addition, a substantial number of new items are included to cover pertinent issues not previously addressed by the ISSP. Topics include (but are not restricted to) civil liberties; national security and challenges; state intervention in the economy; government taxation, spending, redistribution, and responsibilities; political trust and efficacy; corruption and institutional trust; and government responsiveness. This new wave of the module gauges political opinion at a moment in history characterized by substantial political turmoil and change in many countries. At the same time, this fifth wave strengthens the analytical capacity of the module for charting longitudinal developments both within and across countries. Overall, this makes the ISSP ROG module an attractive platform for asking new questions that can further the mutual development of theory and empirical analysis in comparative research.
This study advances the current understanding of why many citizens do not display a high level of commitment to protecting the environment. We examine cross-national differences in the salience of ...attitudinal and behavioral profiles distinguished by their comparably low levels of pro-environmental behavior, in both the public and private spheres. Based on theories of postmaterialism and collective action problems, we expect gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and levels of generalized trust to be related to the salience of these attitudinal and behavioral profiles cross-nationally. First, low levels of GDP very likely constrain pro-environmental behavior through decreasing environmental concern, which should increase the probability of citizens displaying an attitudinal and behavioral profile characterized by low levels of both environmental concern and pro-environmental behavior. Second, collective action problems in low-trust countries should also constrain behavior by undermining the propensity of environmentally concerned individuals to act on their concerns, which should increase the probability of citizens displaying a profile characterized by low levels of pro-environmental behavior despite high levels of concern. Using latent class analysis and multilevel modeling, we analyze data from the International Social Survey Programme (2010) and show that the probability of individuals displaying these profiles is clearly linked to GDP and national levels of generalized trust, in the expected manner. In contrast to previous research, we demonstrate that these societal factors are complementary insofar as they relate to fundamentally different individual-level processes underlying pro-environmental behavior.
: Using Swiss data from the 2003 International Social Survey Programme (N = 902), this multilevel study combined individual and municipality levels of analysis in the explanation of nationalism, ...patriotism and exclusionary immigration attitudes. On the individual level, the results show that in line with previous research nationalism (uncritical and blind attachment to the nation) increased exclusionary immigration attitudes, while patriotism (pride in national democratic institutions) was related to greater tolerance towards immigration. On the municipality level, urbanization, socioeconomic status and immigrant proportion (and their interaction effects) were found to affect nationalism, patriotism and immigration attitudes. Nationalist and patriotic forms of national attachment were stronger in German‐speaking municipalities than in the French‐speaking municipalities. Path analyses further revealed that living in a Swiss‐German municipality indirectly led to more negative immigration attitudes through an increase in nationalism. The research is discussed in light of social psychological and political science literature on political attitudes.
What is the appropriate goal of economic and social policy? In a country where people are starving, economic growth is universally viewed as the key objective. Food comes first and philosophising ...second. As economies get richer, however, they can afford to question the need for further riches. The work stemming from Easterlin's ideas suggests that they need to do so. Greater wealth does not seem to buy extra happiness. This areticle continues a growing tendency for economists to take this issue seriously and to ask whether people should, in one way or another, substitute the goal of gross national happiness for the more traditional economist's objective of gross national product. One of the best known attempts to move away from a simple reliance on gross domestic product as a measure of welfare is the Human Development Index (HDI). Published every eary by the United Nations, the HDI is a score that amalgates three indicators: 1. lifespan, 2. educational attainment, and 3. adjusted real income.
In Australian politics, Labor has traditionally been thought of as the party of big government and the Liberals the party of small government. Drawing from evidence from the 1985, 1990, 1996 and 2007 ...International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) Role of Government surveys, this article examines public opinion in relation to the role of government and how public attitudes towards government differ according to party identification. It is reasonable to expect that Labor Party identifiers would be more supportive of big government, but there is little empirical evidence to support this expectation. This article shows that citizens' attitudes still accord with the Labor-Liberal/big-small government dichotomy and shows partisan identification to have an enduring effect on attitudes towards the role of government, net of other factors.
Survey Administration Effects? Bandilla, Wolfgang; Bosnjak, Michael; Altdorfer, Patrick
Social science computer review,
06/2003, Letnik:
21, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The module “environmental attitudes and values” of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) was administered both as a paper-and-pencil questionnaire to a representative sample of the German ...population and as a web-based survey to an online access panel representative for German Internet users. The two samples differ significantly with regard to sociodemographic and substantive variables. An attempt to weight the data of the web-based sample on the basis of distribution characteristics of several sociodemographic variables resulted in rather inconsistent findings for the comparison of substantive items. However, if only respondents with similar education levels are compared, neither relevant differences in item means nor differences in selected interitem correlations are observable. This means that for high coverage groups (e.g., participants with a high education level), the data gathered via the web are basically identical to those obtained in a traditional self-administered mode.
This paper investigates micro- and macro-level determinants of participation in demonstrations worldwide, focusing on the role of resources and grievances across different democratic contexts. The ...analysis relies on a data set stemming from the ex-post harmonization of five international survey projects covering 100 countries between 1989 and 2009: Americas Barometer, Asia Europe Survey, European Values Study, International Social Survey Programme, and the World Values Survey. Results provide mixed support for previous findings and point to new insights. First, I find that the positive association between education and participation in demonstrations is stronger in democratic countries than in nondemocracies, but there is no evidence of similar variation in the case of income. Second, the effect of trust in parliament is U-shaped, and more pronounced in non-democracies compared to democracies. Overall the findings indicate that the role of resources as well as disaffection with the political system in explaining participation in demonstrations depends on the political context, thus emphasizing the importance of incorporating both levels of analysis in theoretical and empirical models. The paper concludes with a discussion of the opportunities and challenges associated with ex-post harmonization of survey data.
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