American National Election Study, 1996: Pre- and Post-Election Survey (ICPSR 6896)

Principal Investigator(s): Rosenstone, Steven J., University of Michigan. Center for Political Studies; Kinder, Donald R., University of Michigan. Center for Political Studies; Miller, Warren E., University of Michigan. Center for Political Studies; National Election Studies. University of Michigan. Center for Political Studies

Summary: This study is part of a time-series collection of national surveys fielded continuously since 1952, designed to present data on Americans' social backgrounds, enduring political predispositions, social and political values, perceptions and evaluations of groups and candidates, opinions on questions of public policy, and participation in political life. The 1996 National Election Study contains both pre- and post-election components. The Pre-Election Survey includes interviews in whic... (more info)

Series: American National Election Study (ANES) Series

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Rosenstone, Steven J., Donald R. Kinder, Warren E. Miller, and the National Election Studies. AMERICAN NATIONAL ELECTION STUDY, 1996: PRE- AND POST-ELECTION SURVEY. ICPSR06896-v5. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, Center for Political Studies [producer], 2003. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2005-05-23. doi:10.3886/ICPSR06896.v5

Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR06896.v5

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This survey was funded by:

• National Science Foundation (SBR-9317631)

Summary:   This study is part of a time-series collection of national surveys fielded continuously since 1952, designed to present data on Americans' social backgrounds, enduring political predispositions, social and political values, perceptions and evaluations of groups and candidates, opinions on questions of public policy, and participation in political life. The 1996 National Election Study contains both pre- and post-election components. The Pre-Election Survey includes interviews in which approximately 77 percent of the cases are comprised of impanelled respondents first interviewed in either AMERICAN NATIONAL ELECTION STUDY, 1992: PRE- AND POST-ELECTION SURVEY [ENHANCED WITH 1990 AND 1991 DATA] (ICPSR 6067) or in AMERICAN NATIONAL ELECTION STUDY, 1994: POST-ELECTION SURVEY [ENHANCED WITH 1992 AND 1993 DATA] (ICPSR 6507). The other 23 percent of the pre-election cases are a freshly drawn cross-section sample. Of the 1,714 citizens interviewed during the pre-election stage, 1,534 (89.5 percent) also participated in the Post-Election Survey (1,197 of these were panel cases and 337 were cross-section). The content of the 1996 Election Study reflects its dual function, both as the traditional presidential election year time-series data collection and as a panel study. Substantive themes presented in the 1996 questionnaires included interest in topics such as political campaigns, evaluations of the political parties, knowledge of and evaluation of presidential and House candidates, political participation (including turnout in the presidential primaries and in the November general election and other forms of electoral campaign activity), and vote choice for president, the United States House of Representatives, and the United States Senate, including second choice for president. Additional items focused on perceptions of personal and national economic well-being, positions on social welfare issues like the role of government in the provision of jobs and a good standard of living), positions on social issues (including abortion, women's roles, and prayer in the schools), racial and ethnic stereotypes, opinions on affirmative action, attitudes toward immigrants, opinions about the nation's most important problem, political predispositions, social altruism, social connectedness, feeling thermometers on a wide range of political figures and political groups, affinity with various social groups, and detailed demographic information and measures of religious affiliation and religiosity. Previous updates added a core battery of campaign-related items in the pre-election wave to better understand the dynamics of congressional campaigns, several questions related to issue importance and uncertainty both in relation to respondents and to candidates, an eight-minute module of questions developed by a consortium of electoral scholars from 52 polities to facilitate comparative analysis of political attitudes and voting behavior, and a measure of exposure to entertainment programs as an indirect measure of exposure to campaign advertisements. Additional items from previous updates concerned social issues, the environment, like air quality and the safety of drinking water, and the media. The fifth version of the data adds an auxiliary file consisting of merged data on group membership previously found in 1996 Pre-Post releases. In addition, the documentation for variable V961454, included in both the new Auxiliary file and in the 1996 Pre-Post file, was incorrect. The variable information has been corrected in the codebooks and variable labels for the Auxiliary File but not corrected in the 1996 Pre-Post codebook or variable labels.

Subject Terms:   candidates, Clinton Administration (1993-2001), congressional elections, crime, domestic policy, economic conditions, environmental attitudes, environmental policy, foreign policy, government performance, gun control, income, media coverage, memberships, morality, national elections, news media, philanthropy, political affiliation, political attitudes, political campaigns, political efficacy, political elites, political issues, political participation, political partisanship, presidential elections, primaries, public approval, public opinion, public policy, racial attitudes, social issues, social networks, social values, social welfare, stereotypes, trust in government, voter expectations, voter history, voting behavior

Geographic Coverage:   United States

Time Period:  

• 1990--1996

Date of Collection:  

• 1996-09-03--1997-01-01

Universe:   All United States citizens of voting age on or before November 5, 1996, residing in housing units other than on military reservations in the 48 coterminous states.

Data Types:   survey data

Sample:   National multistage area probability sample.

You can find more information via the sample characteristics utility.

Mode of Data Collection:   face to face interview, telephone interview

Original ICPSR Release:  1997-04-30

Version History:

• 2005-05-23 Descriptive variables concerning group membership have been added to this study as Part 2, Auxiliary File With Group Membership Variables, and the documentation for variable V961454 was corrected in the new file. The data are available in additional file formats, and the codebook is now available as a PDF file.
• 2000-04-18 Contextual variables have been added to the data file. Data for this study are now available in SAS transport and SPSS export formats in addition to the ASCII data file. Variables in the dataset have been renumbered to the following format: 2-digit (or 2-character) prefix + 4 digits + [optional] 1-character suffix. The codebook and SAS and SPSS setup files have been revised to reflect these changes and to incorporate changes previously noted in errata. Column locations listed in the codebook appendix have been updated. The Match File and Missing Value File (formerly Parts 2 and 3, for use with 2nd release data) are no longer being distributed.
• 1998-07-15 New time-series weights have been added to this 3rd release of the collection as an alternative to the time-series weights available in Release 2. There is now a new weight for 1996 pre-election variables and a new weight for 1996 post-election variables. A stand-alone "match" file consisting of three variables -- V960001, the 1996 case ID, and V960005A and V960005B, the weight variables -- is provided as Part 2 of the collection for users who wish to merge this information into 1996 files previously downloaded. Also, changes to some missing data codes have been made for several variables (V961189-V961192), and are included as Part 3 of the collection. The DK values have been restored to these cases, as they previously were included as blank or NA cases. In addition, the following lesser changes were made: One case with an incorrect 1994 case ID has been corrected. Several variable label corrections have been made. The Candidate List (Appendix G in the 2nd release) has been renamed Appendix H. Appendix G is now the full technical report for the additional weight variables. The CPS two-digit Occupation Master Codes, which are required for the occupation coding of the respondent's father, have been included with the Appendix E set of 1996 Master Codes. (These Master Codes were omitted in the codebook included with Release 2.) The codebook and SAS and SPSS setup files have been revised to reflect these changes to the collection.

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