Political Behavior in Chile, 1958

This study was conducted in Santiago, Chile, in 1958. There were two waves of interviews: the first wave was carried out prior to the presidential election, and the second wave after the election. Of the 807 respondents surveyed in the first wave, only the 399 who had actually voted in the election were interviewed in the second wave. In the pre-election wave, questions focused on political party affiliation and policies associated with each party, presidential candidates and their platforms, the respondents' voting intentions, and their past voting patterns. The respondents were also asked to pinpoint Chile's most pressing problems and to comment on the position of Chilean peasants and workers. Questions asked in the post-election wave of the study elicited respondents' views of a possible administration under either of the two most popular candidates and probed the respondents' evaluations of the election. The data include derived measures for the respondents' socioeconomic status and occupation.