ANES 1978 Time Series Study (ICPSR 35117)

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This study is part of a time-series collection of national surveys fielded continuously since 1952. The election studies are 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. In this post-election survey, major emphasis was placed on the respondent's evaluation of their congressional district's candidates, both the incumbent and opponent, along several dimensions. As in previous American National Election studies, this survey included a series of questions on the media coverage of the campaigns and scales that measured the respondent's positions on major social issues, including urban unrest, protection of the rights of the accused, aid to minority groups, government insurance plan, and women's role in society. The perceived position of the political parties, as well as certain political leaders, on these issues was also ascertained. In addition to the survey data, this file also contains several contextual components consisting of: (1) historical election returns at the state, congressional district, and county levels for elections to the offices of president, governor, and United States senator and representative, 1972-1976, (2) 1978 election returns for primary and general elections to the same offices, including precinct level returns, (3) voter validation variables, (4) information about media structure in the respondent's locale, (5) incumbent characteristics, including information pertaining to the incumbent U.S. representatives of the 95th Congress from the 108 congressional districts sampled in the survey (a major feature of this component is a series of performance ratings that each member of Congress received from certain interest groups and from the Congressional Quarterly), (6) candidate characteristics that apply to the Democratic and Republican candidates for the office of U.S. representative in the 1978 general elections (the latter data were obtained from a 1978 candidate questionnaire that was administered by Congressional Quarterly, Inc.), (7) information prepared by the Federal Election Commission on campaign expenditures and contributions for the offices of U.S. senator and U.S. representative, and (8) U.S. Census Bureau data containing social, economic, and demographic information recorded for the respondent's place of residence. Some of the Census data present information at the congressional district level drawn from the Congressional District Data Book (93rd Congress), as well as county-level Census tabulations prepared from the 1972 County and City Data Book. Additional information includes campaign materials collected from the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican congressional candidates, such as what types of campaign material existed and in how many varieties. Additionally, thematic dimensions of the campaign were coded from the campaign materials.

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