International Social Survey Programme: Role of Government III - ISSP 1996

The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) is a continuous programme of cross-national collaboration running annual surveys on topics important for the social sciences. The programme started in 1984 with four founding members - Australia, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States – and has now grown to almost 50 member countries from all over the world. As the surveys are designed for replication, they can be used for both, cross-national and cross-time comparisons. Each ISSP module focuses on a specific topic, which is repeated in regular time intervals. Please, consult the documentation for details on how the national ISSP surveys are fielded. The present study focuses on questions about political attitudes and the role of government.<br>Attitude to observance of laws; attitudes to various forms of
protest against the government; willingness to participate and actual
participation in public protest events or demonstrations against the
government; views regarding freedom of speech for extremists; attitude
to miscarriage of justice; perceived threat to the private sphere from
governmental data collection and computer networks (privacy
protection); income equalization as government task and stand on
economy-related measures of government; attitude to increase in
government expenditures for environmental protection, public health
system, the police, education system, defense, pensions, unemployment
benefits, culture; assessment of the power of trade unions, business
and government; assessment of the governmental responsibility for
social political tasks (protection of old people, students, housing
supply, jobs, economic growth through aid to industry, price stability
etc.); political interest; general attitudes to politics and the
political system (subjective assessment of the political possibilities
to influence (efficacy), political extent to which informed,
politicians and election promises, satisfaction with democracy); tax
reduction versus expansion of social services; assessment of tax equity
with various income groups; attitude to privatization or
nationalization of selected public facilities; reducing inflation
versus fight against unemployment; preference for increased social
services or reduction in debt; attitude to amount of income tax for
first and second job.

Demography: sex; age; living together with a partner; school
education; employment status of respondent as well as partner;
occupation (ILO/ISCO Code); employment in the public sector;
self-employed occupation; hours worked each week; supervisor status;
income; family income; religious denomination; religiousness;
self-classification of social class; union membership; party preference
(left-right orientation); behavior at the polls in the last election;
reasons for not voting; size of household; composition of household;
degree of urbanization; city size; region; ethnic or national
affiliation or origins.