Presidential Election Campaign Study, 1984: [South Bend, Indiana] (ICPSR 6522)

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The objective of this data collection was to study communication and influence in an election campaign, with special emphasis on social networks and social contexts as they relate to political behavior. The first wave (Part 1) of this three-wave panel survey provided baseline measures on respondents prior to the 1984 general election campaign. Topics covered general political participation history, primary election participation, general policy opinions, opinions regarding important national problems, and intended vote. Additionally, the instrument included a complete battery of demographic questions for the respondent and the respondent's spouse, as well as standard measures of political loyalties and preferences, such as political party identification and liberal-conservative identification. The second pre-election wave (Parts 2 and 3) was designed to locate respondents sociologically. The instrument included five batteries of questions regarding respondents' neighborhoods, work places, organizational involvements, recreational pursuits, and families. Questions regarding the political salience of each domain were asked, as well as a battery of questions concerning political discussion and the respondent's reliance upon informal, socially-derived information regarding politics. In addition to questions about the respondent's social environments, the instrument also included questions on candidate preference and perceptions of candidates, expectations regarding the economy and foreign affairs, and various policy concerns. The third wave (Parts 4 and 5) of the survey, conducted after the 1984 election, contained sections on media use, political party contacted by the respondent during the campaign, participation in the campaign, voting behavior in the election, and opinions regarding campaign issues. The standard post-election questions were supplemented by questions regarding local politics and local political figures, group attitudes, and respondents' social networks. The discussant survey interviews (Part 6) elicited information from respondents' discussion partners on campaign-related political involvement and behaviors, political opinions, basic demographic characteristics, and network questions. The network questions were included primarily to investigate reciprocity in network links for the main respondents. Demographic data collected on participants include information on marital status, educational level, employment status, income level, age, sex, religion, ethnic background, nationality, and ideological stance.

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