Data Resources for the
Study of Politics in the Czech Republic
By
Pat Lyons
Published by the Institute of
Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
Prague 2012
ISBN 978-80-7330-219-1
Pages: 403
Free full-text download: Lyons_Theory-Data-Analysis.pdf (3.3 MB)
This
monograph is unique as it is the first comprehensive study of the corpus of
political data available in the Czech Republic. Rather than being a descriptive
inventory of what is available and where the data are archived; this study also
explains who undertook the research that created the data, how the data were
created and equally importantly why was the data research undertaken in the
first place. It is widely accepted within the social sciences that the “data do
not speak for themselves but must be interpreted.” For this important reason,
any discussion of political data resources must be accompanied by an
explanation of the context in which the data were
created, operationalised, modelled and used to
explain real world political phenomena.
Within
this book the presentation of the data resources available to the community of
political scientists interested in the Czech Republic is presented in a
functional manner where the general purpose of the data is emphasised.
Consequently, the overview of data is divided into five groups which form the
basis of chapters in this study: (a) election survey data, (b) official
election results, (c) comparative survey data, (d) elite survey data, (e)
expert and manifesto survey data. In order to demonstrate the characteristics
and importance of specific datasets a brief examination is made of the
published research associated with the data. This is important because it
provides the student and researcher with a starting point for beginning their
own research work. The final chapter of this volume explores some of the key
methodological features of survey data such as quality and sampling; and
statistical methods used to examine the data.
Introduction
Overview
1. Theory, data and analysis
2. A fundamental idea: public opinion
3. Why is political survey data important?
4. Solutions to definitional problems?
5. Logic of this study
6. Roadmap of the book
Chapter 1: Theories of Political Attitudes and Public Opinion
Introduction
1.1 Early conceptions of public opinion
1.2 British liberal utilitarian theories
1.3 French and German perspectives
1.4 Nineteenth century liberal critiques
1.5 Theoretical approaches in the early twentieth century
1.6 Social psychological models
1.7 Early post-war critiques of mass surveying
1.8 Contemporary critiques
Conclusion
Chapter 2: Origins and
Nature of Political Attitude Surveying
Introduction
2.1 What is a political attitude?
2.2 Opinions, attitudes, beliefs and values
2.3 Political neuroscience: visualising political
attitudes
2.4 Public knowledge and attitude measurement
2.5 Revisionist approaches to public opinion, heuristics
and cues
Conclusion
Chapter 3: Election
Survey Research
Introduction
3.1 Chamber Elections (1990–2010)
3.2 Senate Elections (1996–2010)
3.3 European Elections (2004–2009)
3.4 Regional and Local Elections (2000–2010)
3.5 Exit Poll Survey Data (1990–2010)
3.6 Panel Survey Data on Political Topics
3.7 Inter-election Political Opinion Polling
3.8 Examples of inter-election dynamics
3.9 Aggregate electoral data analysis research
Conclusion
Chapter 4: Comparative
Survey Research
Introduction
4.1 Public Support for the European Union
4.2 New Democracy and New Europe Barometers (NDB/NEB)
4.3 ISSP: Citizenship, Role of Government and National
Identity Modules
4.4 European and World Values Surveys (EVS/WVS)
4.5 Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES)
4.6 European Election Study (EES)
4.7 European Social Survey (ESS)
4.8 International Civic and Citizenship Education Study
(ICCS)
4.9 Other Comparative Political Surveys
Conclusion
Chapter 5: Elite Survey
Research
Introduction
5.1 Czechoslovak Opinion Makers Survey (1969)
5.2 Social Stratification in Eastern Europe after 1989
(1994)
5.3 Cohesion and Stability of Czech Elites (2007)
5.4 Citizens and Elites in Europe, IntUne
(2007–2010)
5.5 Parliamentary Surveys in the Czech Republic (1993–2010)
5.6 Case study: Determinants of Czech legislator’s policy
preferences
5.7 Candidate surveys
5.8 Surveys of party members
Conclusion
Chapter 6: Manifesto
and Expert Data Research
Introduction
6.1 Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP) Data
6.2 Expert surveys
Conclusion
Chapter 7: Interpretation
of Political Survey Data
Introduction
7.1 Validity and reliability of survey methods
7.2 Pre-election surveys that went wrong and why?
7.3 Questionnaire effects
7.4 Response option effects
Conclusion
Chapter 8: Conceptualising
Survey Data and Interpretation of Questionnaire Responses
Introduction
8.1 Rival conceptions of survey response
8.2 Measurement of party closeness in Europe
8.3 Belief sampling model and response option effects
8.4 A spatial representation of response option change
effects
8.5 National context and measurement of party closeness
8.6 Response option effects and institutional context
Conclusion
Conclusion
Overview
8.1 What are political attitudes and why are they
important?
8.2 Can political attitudes be measured?
8.3 How do political scientists conceptualise survey
data?
8.4 Testing theories of data generation mechanisms or
political reality?
8.5 What is the relationship between theory, data and
analysis?
PAT
LYONS is a senior researcher in the Department of Political Sociology, Institute of
Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the
Czech Republic. He has written books
on Irish public opinion
(2008), Mass and elite attitudes during the Prague Spring era (2009), analysis of political data in the Czech Republic (2012) and attitudes
toward democracy in the Czech Republic in 1968 and 2008 (2013). His
main research interests are public opinion, voting behaviour, political
attitudes and participation and legislative behaviour. He was a member of the
Czech National Election Study (2006, 2010) team and a variety of national and
international research projects. He is currently principal investigator for two
Czech Grant Agency projects examining the origins, nature and impact of political
knowledge and a comparative analysis of protestors and citizens employing the
ISSP ‘Citizenship’ module (2014). He has published articles in journals such as
Acta Politica, British
Journal of Elections, Parties and Public Opinion, Czech Sociological Review,
Irish Political Studies, and Political Studies on a variety of topics; and has contributed
to monographs examining the results of
the Czech lower chamber elections of 2006 and 2010.
This
monograph has been completed with funding from the Czech Ministry of Education,
Youth and Sports for the project ‘Zdroje dat, vyzkum standardů,
kvality dat a metody harmonizace dat pro mezinarodni socialni komparativni vyzkum’ (Sources of Data, Research Standards and Methods
for Data Harmonisation in Comparative Social Research) and integration within
the CESSDA network (reg. LA09010).
The project was
carried out within research activities of the Czech Social
Science Data Archive (ČSDA) of the
Institute of Sociology ASCR.
Institute of Sociology AS CR
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Science Data Archive, Jilská 1, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic. E-mail: archiv@soc.cas.cz.