I want to measure if people vote and their behaviour/attitudes towards voting. Also, the level to which they engage in poltical events and agendas. I wanted to know if there are any scale that measures this?
Hi Dave.
Voters' participation can be measured with V / E (total voters / toral electorate). You can use the data on official electoral results, which are reported in various books and websites (for instance http://parlgov.org/) . Figures are fairly reliable, although minor issues exist.
Data on attitudes toward voting and political participation are mainly gathered through electoral and opinion surveys, for instance EU's EUROBAROMETER (http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/index_en.htm) or national election studies (http://povb-ecpr.org/node/31). Figures must be used more carefully, as there's always a statistical error, the samples may be somewhat non-representatives and people tend to misreport their actual behaviour (either exaggerating or understating their participatory activities).
Hi Paolo,
Thank you for your reply.
Thank you also for the information you have provided. I will have to take this route to measure voting behaviour and political participation. Initially, I was thinking of using a self-report scale to assess this in a focus-group however I don't feel such a scale exists.
Ravi
Markus Prior and Van Deth are two very talented scholars that have written on the measure of political interest. I would go for the ordinary question : "How interested would you say you are in politics ?" a) very, b) quite, c) hardly, d) not at all. It works just fine and you can find it in any serious political opinion survey.
On the matter of engagement in political events, I am not sure what are you referring to, but there's a widely accepted battery of questions on political engagement. It asks whether the respondent has performed any of the following activities in the last 12 months: contacting a politician, petitioning, worked for a party and/or an organization, demonstrated, participated in a strike... For this question and the previous one I would suggest taking a look at the ESS, a very good international survey:
http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/download.html?file=ESS6e02&y=2012
Regarding attitudes about voting. Well, you have a question on whether or not voting is "necessary" to be considered a good question in surveys dealing with norms of citizenship (see Dalton and Van Deth's works), such as the CID or the ISSP. Also, Blais and Achen have developed two questions that tap whether or not the individuals feel that they have a "duty" to vote.
Take a look to the ICCS studies from the IEA http://www.iea.nl/fileadmin/user_upload/Publications/Electronic_versions/ICCS_2009_International_Report.pdf
Michael
hi Dave
i hope you are doing well, iam interested in political interest and i hope you find this questionnaire (about voting and political interest) useful for your work, good luck
Hi Michael and Mohsen,
Sorry for the delay in replying and Thanking you for your help. I am interested in how perceived injustice or feelings of oppression can lead to disengagement in political agendas and lower ones political interest. I am further interested in whether there are repercussions of political apathy and revenge-motivated violence i.e. does feeling oppressed lead to increased direct violence towards perceived offender group rather than seeking legal justice.
Thank you once again for your help and support.
Ravi
Hi Ravi. Its nice to come across your question which tends to measure voting behavior and voting interest. Coincidentally, my doctoral work was a similar one in which the questionnaire tested various hypotheses which were based on political branding and political participation. The demographics and psychological aspects related to the voters were also a part of the study. The instrument had various question formats such as Likert-type which asked voters for their preferences with regard to various traits of the two major political leaders and parties in the country during the last general election.
Hi Amit Kumar,
Thank you for your reply.
I have similarly used Likert-scales, however now shifted my focus more on to social dominance, authoritarianism and ethnic acceptance. This I feel has become more relevant given the current climate and changing global politics, which is fundamentally based on race, religion and ethnicity.
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