The TRI 2007 and CMP 2013 Surveys of Members of Parliament

The study was conducted in two waves of interviews among members of parliament in two old and five new democracies as part of a larger comparative study of democratic development. While the TRI 2007 elite survey did not only include members of parliament, but also media elites, the integrated data file includes parliamentarians only. During the survey period 04.11.2006 to 16.12.2013, members of parliament were interviewed in face-to-face interviews and telephone interviews on the following topics: democracy, religion and the church, and the impact of the global financial and economic crisis. Respondents were selected by random sampling (Chile: full survey (Total universe/Complete enumeration).<br>Satisfaction with life; trusting most people vs. need to be very careful; groups of people the respondent would not like to have as neighbors (people of a different race, people who have AIDS, immigrants or foreign workers, people of a different religion); estimated proportion of the population who would not want immigrants or foreign workers as neighbors; estimated proportion of voters or supporters of own party who would not want immigrants or foreign workers as neighbors; no freedom of choice vs. great deal of control over own life; people taking advantage of you if the got a chance vs. people try to be fair; country’s most important aim (first choice and second choice: maintaining order in the nation, giving people mor say in important government decisions, fighting rising prices, protecting freedom of speech); respondent`s position on a Left-right scale; estimated position of respondents party on a Left-right scale; estimated position of party`s voters on a Left-right scale; estimated position of population as a whole on a Left-right scale; income equality vs. income differences as incentives for individual effort; private vs. government ownership of business and industry; private vs. government responsibility for provision; competition is good and stimulates people to work hard vs. competition is harmful and brings out the worst in people; confidence in different organizations (religious communities, armed forces, press, television, labor unions, police, courts, government, political parties, parliament, the civil service, banks, environmental organizations, women`s organizations, charitable or humanitarian organizations, country specific regional organization (e.g. African Union, EU), United Nations, Constitutional Court; rating of various types of political systems (having a strong leader who does not have to bother with parliament and elections, having experts, not government, make decisions according to what they think is best for the country, having the army rule, having a democratic political system); essential characteristics of democracy (governments tax the rich and subsidize the poor, the individual human right to dignity (e.g. respect of others) is upheld, people choose their leaders in free elections, People receive state aid for unemployment, Civil rights protect people’s liberty against oppression, the economy is prospering, women have the same rights as men, complete freedom for anyone to criticize the government, equality of the vote in elections, basic necessities like shelter, food and water for everyone, jobs for everyone, equal opportunity in education, minority rights); rating of the current governments performance in handling the above mentioned matters; agreement with the following statement: Although democracy has many shortcomings, it is still better than any other political system; extend to which the country is democratically governed today; satisfaction with the development of democracy in the country; extent of respect for individual human rights nowadays in the country; likelihood that authorities could enforce the law if a person committed a serious crime and if a person did not pay tax on some of the earned income; likelihood that court will punish elected public office holders, civil servants and managers of private businesses who take bribes; prevalence of corruption in the country amongst elected public office holders, amongst civil servants, and amongst managers of private businesses; agreement with the following statements about the current political system (people have freedom of speech and association, nobody needs to be afraid of arbitrary arrest, people have the freedom to choose who to vote for without being pressured); rating of the communication between various political groups (governing and opposition parties, governing parties and mass media, opposition parties and mass media, governing parties and NGOs, and between the opposition parties and NGOs).

Frequency of thinking about the meaning of life; religion or religious denomination; frequency of attending religious services; self-evaluation as religious person; opinion on churches (are giving adequate answers to the moral problems and needs of the individual, to the problems of family life, to people`s spiritual needs and to the social problems facing the society); importance of God in life; justification of homosexuality, of prostitution, of abortion, of divorce and of death penalty; proud to be citizen of the country.

Global financial and economic crisis: evaluation of the current state of economy; evaluation of the state of economy compared to 12 months ago; evaluation of the state of economy over the next 12 months; impact of financial and economic crisis on the country in general, on country´s economy, on country´s banking system, on the people´s standard of living, and on the quality of democracy in the country; rating of the performance of different actors in handling the impact of the crisis (national government, parties (country specific), International Monetary Fund (IMF), G20, and the EU); personal involvement in government decision-making dealing with the crisis; parties that benefited or suffered from the crisis (country specific); crisis as a consequence of neo-liberal economic policies; impact of the crisis has already reached its peak vs. the worst is yet to come; position of different parties (country specific) on economic and welfare policies; respondents position on welfare state dealing with the crisis; rating of the contribution of national policy measures to overcoming the crisis; fairness of income distribution in the country; impact of the crisis on income distribution ; frequency of: public procurement contracts for most favorable kickbacks, public sector employees treat some groups unfairly, public sectors favor applicants with whom the have strong personal contacts, public sector employees act impartially); economic policy should be run by politicians or experts; economic policy in the country is run by politicians or experts; evaluation of globalization; more important in a democracy: equality or freedom; closer to own vision of state: guaranteeing political freedoms or equalizing citizens` welfare; perceived conflict between different groups in society (between the rich and the poor, young and old, religious believers and non-believers (atheists), women and men, employees and employers, public and private sector employees, educated and uneducated, working and middle classes, and between farmers and urban population).

Demography: country of birth; highest level of formal education, father´s and mother´s highest level of formal education, party of respondent (country specific).

Additionally coded was: survey wave; unique ID, case ID; country of interview; date of interview; weighting factors.