THE DECLINE OF OVER-TIME COMPARABILITY IN THE NATIONAL ELECTION STUDIES

Abstract

The National Election Studies conducted by the University of Michigan Survey Research Center and Center for Political Studies provide the best data set for studying the political attitudes and behavior of the American electorate. The American National Election Studies Data Sourcebook, which complies NES survey results between 1952 and 1978, demonstrates the extent to which these surveys facilitate over-time analysis. This article uses the Sourcebook as a baseline and shows that there has been a substantial decline in the over-time comparability of items measuring public policy preferences and of items measuring support for the political system.