New democracies barometer - 1991+

"The Centre for the Study of Public Policy (CSPP) and the Paul Lazarsfeld Society, Vienna, cooperated in launching a major multi-national survey, the New Democracies Barometer (NDB), to monitor the response of people caught up in the transformation of their polity, economy, society and often state boundaries too. Five NDB surveys were conducted between 1991 and 1998. After the fifth round, the CSPP took responsibility for conducting surveys of post-Communist countries seeking membership in the European Union. It has conducted NEB rounds in 2001 and the winter of 2004/5. Countries covered in one or more surveys NDB/NEB surveys include: the eight new member states of the EU--Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,--plus two applicant countries, Bulgaria and Romania; and in the Balkans, Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia. In the former Soviet Union it covers Belarus and Ukraine, and there has been one survey in Moldova. In addition, many questions asked in NEB surveys have been asked in New Russia Barometer surveys. The NEB works on the Heineken's principle of reaching parts that official statistics do not reach. Because it is independent of government, it can ask people to evaluate their national institutions, for example, how fair government is and how trustworthy or untrustworthy are its political institutions. Evaluations are made of the current political and economic system by comparison with the past--and future expectations of democratic or undemocratic governance. Health is also a special concern."--NEB Surveys website.