Abstract:

The Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) is a collaborative program of research among election study teams from around the world. Participating countries and provinces include a common module of survey questions in their post-election studies. The resulting data are deposited along with voting, demographic, district and macro/electoral system variables.
The subject of this pretest are various questions of the 5th module on topics such as political interest, attitudes towards political elites, attitudes towards immigrants, national identity and attitudes towards income redistribution.
The questions were tested via face-to-face cognitive interviews.

*Note: The items were tested in German. The items documented here are English translations of the original German wordings.The translations do not correspond exactly to the formulations in the English CSES source questionnaire.*

Citation:

Lenzner, T., Otto, W., Neuert, C., Beitz, C., Schmidt, R., & Stiegler, A. (2016): Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) Module 5 (English Version). Cognitive Pretest. GESIS Project Reports. Version: 1.0. GESIS - Pretestlab. Text.

DOI:

http://doi.org/10.17173/pretest27

Question No.	Pretesting Results	Type	Construct	Question documented in ZIS
1	How interested would you say you are in politics? [Wie interessiert sind Sie im Allgemeinen an Politik?]	Single Question	Political interest	No
2	And how closely do you follow politics on TV, radio, newspapers, or the Internet? [Und wie aufmerksam verfolgen Sie Politik im Fernsehen, im Radio, in den Zeitungen oder im Internet?]	Single Question	Media usage for political information	No
3	Do you strongly agree, somewhat agree, neither agree nor disagree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree with the following statements: [Inwieweit stimmen Sie den folgenden Aussagen zu?]	Multi-Item Scale	Attitudes towards the political elite	No
4	Now thinking about ethnic minorities. Do you strongly agree, somewhat agree, neither agree or disagree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree with the following statements: [Und wenn Sie nun an ethnische Minderheiten denken: Inwieweit stimmen Sie den folgenden Aussagen zu?]	Multi-Item Scale	Attitudes towards immigrants	No
5	Some people say that the following things are important for being truly German. Others say they are not important. How important do you think each of the following is... very important, fairly important, not very important, or not important at all? [Manche Leute sind der Ansicht, die folgenden Punkte seien wichtig, um eine richtige Deutsche/ ein richtiger Deutscher zu sein. Andere sagen, diese seien nicht wichtig. Wie wichtig schätzen Sie die folgenden Punkte ein?]	Multi-Item Scale	National identity
6	Some people think that the government should cut taxes even if it means spending less on social services such as health and education. Other people feel that the government should spend more on social services such as health and education even if it means raising taxes. Where would you place yourself on this scale where 0 is “Governments should decrease taxes and spend less on services ” and 10 is “Governments should increase taxes and spend more on services”? [Manche Leute meinen, dass die Regierung Steuern senken sollte, auch wenn dies bedeutet, weniger für Sozialleistungen, z.B. im Gesundheits- oder Bildungsbereich, auszugeben. Andere Leute meinen, dass die Regierung mehr für Sozialleistungen wie z.B. im Bildungs- oder Gesundheitsbereich ausgeben sollte, auch wenn dies bedeutet, dass die Steuern erhöht werden. Wo würden Sie sich selbst auf der folgenden Skala einordnen, wobei 0 bedeutet „Regierung sollte Steuern senken und weniger für Sozialleistungen ausgeben“ und 10 bedeutet „Regierung sollte Steuern erhöhen und mehr für Sozialleistungen ausgeben“?]	Single Question	Attitude towards distribution of income	No

Number of Participants:

Selection of Target Population/Quotas:

Quota sample. The selection of the target population was based on the following quota scheme. All respondents were German citizens.

2 females and 2 males, 18-40 years, less than Abitur
2 females and 2 males, 18-40 years, Fachhochschulreife/ Abitur
2 females and 2 males, 41 years and older, less than Abitur
2 females and 2 males, 41 years and older, Fachhochschulreife/ Abitur

Test Date:

04/2016 - 05/2016

Number of cognitive interviewers:

Pretests conducted in the lab (video-recorded):

Pretests conducted via phone or externally (audio-recorded):

Survey mode:

CAPI

Pretest mode:

CAPI

Procedure:

Application of a cognitive interview protocol

Incentive for respondents:

30 Euros

Project Description:

The Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) is a collaborative program of research among election study teams from around the world. Participating countries and provinces include a common module of survey questions in their post-election studies. The resulting data are deposited along with voting, demographic, district and macro/electoral system variables. The studies are then merged into a single, free, public dataset for use in comparative study and cross-level analysis.
In preparation of the 2016 Plenary Session in August 2016, at which the project foresees the official adaption of the questionnaire for Module 5, the purpose of this task is to provide the projects secretariat, planning committee, and collaborators with detailed results from a cognitive pretest of selected questions.

Website:

https://www.gesis.org/en/services/finding-and-accessing-data/cses

Client:

GESIS

Stephen Quinlan

Pretest Report (German):

Pretest Report (English):

Citation: Lenzner, T., Otto, W., Neuert, C., Beitz, C., Schmidt, R., & Stiegler, A. (2016): Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) Module 5 (English Version). Cognitive Pretest. GESIS Project Reports. Version: 1.0. GESIS - Pretestlab. Text.

Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) Module 5 (English Version) - Cognitive Pretest