Cross-National Election Studies: United States Study, 1992

This study represents one component of a five-nation comparative data collection effort undertaken in Great Britain, Germany, Japan, Spain, and the United States during the early 1990s. The data were collected to study political communication and voting behavior during an election campaign. While the Main Respondent Data (Part 1) provide the central database, these data are supplemented by other data sources. The data collection combines three related surveys: a survey of 1,318 main respondents (Part 1), a survey of 271 spouses of the main respondents (Part 2), and a survey of 841 non-spouse discussion partners of the main respondents (Part 3). Part 4 supplies the text of open-ended question responses given by respondents to all three surveys. Part 5 provides information coded from articles in major local newspapers on issues dealing with the 1992 election campaign. Topics of investigation in this study concerned factors that influenced respondents' level of information about politics and public affairs, political awareness, and voting behavior, such as the kinds of newspapers and magazines respondents read, what national network news they watched, and whether they watched talk shows. Additional questions addressed candidate evaluations, general attitudes toward public offices and election campaigns, and participation in special interest groups, including political parties. The study also queried respondents about their feelings on topics such as affirmative action, foreign imports, using military force to overthrow Saddam Hussein, the budget deficit, medical insurance, abortion, minority aid, and the environment. Demographic characteristics of respondents include educational level, occupational status, income level, age, gender, race and ethnicity, marital status, religious preference, group affiliation, and social status.