political

POLITICAL DATA ANALYSIS

POLS 365

DR. Dinorah Azpuru

SURVEY DATA

(INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL DATA, SECONDARY DATA)

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1. Select one country from each region of the world indicated below and find the required public opinion (survey) data from the World Values Survey (use online data analysis, select 2010-2014).

COUNTRY Select one country in each region	Percentage of population that say that politics is important in their life (add up the “very important and “rather important categories)	Percentage of the population that express confidence in Parliament (Congress) (add up the “a great deal” and “quite a lot” categories)
United States
Western Europe:
Eastern Europe:
Africa:
Asia:
Latin America:

What do you find relevant in the results above? Mention TWO things.

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2. Using the Pew Global Attitudes Project http://www.pewglobal.org/topics/democracy/ find the following question/answers:

COUNTRY Select one country in each region	Percentage of population that say that “representative democracy” is somewhat good or very good	Percentage of the population that say that “direct democracy is somewhat good or very good	Percentage of the population that say that “rule by experts” is good or very good	Percentage of the population that say that “rule by a strong leader” is good or very good	Percentage of the population that say that “rule by military” is good or very good
United States
Western Europe:
Eastern Europe:
Africa:
Asia:
Latin America:

What do you find relevant in the results above? Mention TWO things.

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3. Using the Gallup News (Reports) on public opinion in the U.S., https://news.gallup.com/topic/foreign_affairs.aspx find information about the following topics related to foreign affairs:

A. Fill out the table below (include independents if the information is available):

Percentage who have a favorable opinion of Russia in 2018	Percentage who think that the United Nations is doing a good job	Perceived Impact of Tariffs on U.S. Economy, by Political Party (Percentage who say it will make things worse in the long-run)
Republicans:	Republicans:	Republicans:
Democrats:	Democrats:	Democrats:
Independents:	Independents:	Independents:

What do you find relevant in the results above? Mention TWO things.

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Do you see any particular cross-time patterns?

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4. Using data collected by the American National Election Studies (ANES) https://electionstudies.org/resources/ fill in the spaces below:

a. Find the distribution of “ideological self-identification” in the United States (Found in Utilities and then ANES Guide to Public Opinion and Electoral Behavior).

b. In the Table below indicate the results for the most recent year available:

IDEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION	Percentage
Extremely liberal
Liberal
Slightly liberal
Moderate
Slightly conservative
Conservative
Very conservative

c. Briefly indicate TWO things that you find relevant in the table above

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d. Compare the most recent results with those of previous years (cross-time data).

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5. Using the Pew Research Center data for the United States http://www.pewresearch.org/topics/ indicate and briefly discuss Americans’ opinions about these four topics of importance in the current political debate (Try to use the most current information available and put the year in parentheses. Note any differences that you find relevant, for instance division by partisanship, or age if available):

TOPIC	PERCENTAGES	TRENDS (DISCUSSION)
DEATH PENALTY
GUN CONTROL
GAY MARRIAGE (same-sex)
LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA (see Drugs)

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