Latin American Public Opinion Project and The
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LAPOP Latin American Public Opinion Project and the AmericasBarometer LAPOP: Latin American Public Opinion Project Department of Political Science Vanderbilt University PMB 0505 230 Appleton Place Nashville, TN 37203 USA PHONE: (615) 322-4033 WEB: LapopSurveys.org AmericasBarometer.org Vanderbilt University is committed to principles of equal opportunity and affirmative action. “Vanderbilt” and the Vanderbilt logo are registered trademarks and service marks of Vanderbilt University. Produced by Vanderbilt University Creative Services and Vanderbilt Printing Services, 2014. Printed on paper with 10 percent post-consumer recycled content with ink made from renewable resources, as part of the university’s commitment to environmental stewardship and natural resource protection. This publication is recyclable. Please recycle it. LAPOP: An Overview The Latin American Public Opinion Project and the Caribbean for more than 60 These partners provide country-specific (LAPOP) is a leader in the development, years. At Vanderbilt, a dedicated team feedback on survey content and work implementation, and analysis of data of faculty, staff, postdoctoral research- with LAPOP to disseminate the results on individual opinions and behavior. ers, and students works year-round on of the public opinion surveys to the citi- As a center for excellence in survey the design and analysis of public opin- zens of participating countries. research, LAPOP uses “gold standard” ion studies. This team also edits and approaches and innovative methods to publishes the bi-weekly Insights series, Through years of polling an expanding carry out targeted and national surveys; which features brief reports on individ- set of countries using sophisticated tech- conduct impact evaluation studies; and ual facets of public opinion. niques, LAPOP has developed a tremen- produce reports on individual attitudes, dous amount of high quality data on evaluations, and experiences. LAPOP’s network extends across the citizens’ views and behaviors across the Americas. LAPOP functions as a con- Americas. As a pioneer in cutting-edge LAPOP’s origins are grounded in sortium, working in partnership with methods, LAPOP is a resource for all research conducted by Dr. Mitchell numerous academic and nongovern- those interested in public opinion data Seligson in the 1970s on democratic mental institutions and individuals. of the highest quality. values in Costa Rica. This pioneering effort took place during a time in which much of the rest of Latin America was caught in the grip of repressive regimes that widely prohibited studies of public opinion. As democratization expanded in Latin America, LAPOP grew in scope and size. Dr. Elizabeth Zechmeister, an expert in experimental methods and public opinion research, joined LAPOP in 2008 and, as of 2014, has assumed the role of LAPOP Director. Today, LAPOP conducts research in every coun- try in Latin America, Canada, the United States, and much of the Caribbean. LAPOP holds its surveys and studies to the highest standards of quality. This unparalleled quality control is inserted LAPOP has conducted surveys in the following countries in the Americas: at each stage of the project: question- Argentina Colombia Haiti Suriname naire and sample design; pre-testing; Bahamas Costa Rica Honduras Trinidad and fieldwork oversight; expert data pro- Barbados Dominican Jamaica Tobago cessing and analysis; and reporting. Belize Republic Mexico United States Bolivia Ecuador Nicaragua Uruguay LAPOP is housed at Vanderbilt Univer- Brazil El Salvador Panama Venezuela sity in Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt Canada Guatemala Paraguay is a research university that has been Chile Guyana Peru a leader in the study of Latin America LapopSurveys.org | LAPOP & AmericasBarometer 1 LAPOP: What We Produce AmericasBarometer Insights LAPOP’s AmericasBarometer regional The Insights series provides short, pithy • Trust in institutions survey is the only scientifically rigorous analyses of key, policy-relevant data • Electoral engagement comparative survey that covers all of gathered by the AmericasBarometer. • Democratic governance the mainland independent countries in Normally released every two weeks, North, Central, and South America, as the studies are written mainly by LAPOP • Economic well-being well as a significant number of coun- faculty and researchers and are pub- • Policy preferences tries in the Caribbean. With the Amer- lished in both English and Spanish. The • Crime and violence icasBarometer, LAPOP measures values, studies are accessible at vanderbilt.edu/ • Health and happiness behaviors, and socio-economic condi- lapop/insights.php. Subscription is free tions in the Americas using national and available by emailing your name to One example of some of the interesting probability samples of voting-age [email protected]. work presented in our Insights series is adults. Standardization of methods shown in the graph below, from a recent across the national surveys and a com- A sample of the topics researched by report on Colombia titled “Acceptance mon core questionnaire permits valid LAPOP faculty, graduate students, and of a Hypothetical Victory by the FARC in comparisons across countries and time, former students within the Insights a 2015 Local Election.” allowing the AmericasBarometer to series and other LAPOP reports includes, serve as a valid “barometer” of levels but is not limited to, the following: and shifts in individual opinions and behaviors. Stratified sample designs, available on LAPOP’s website, permit 100 complex analyses of individuals nested 11.1% within sub-regions. In addition to a 15.9% common core, individual question- Acceptance of a Hypothetical Victory naires contain country-specific modules 80 by the FARC in a 2015 Local Election that allow experts to assess topics of particular relevance to the country. 35.1% Would not accept 38.5% Would accept The AmericasBarometer series begins 60 in 2004 and includes 28 countries and DK/DA more than 228,000 interviews. 40 53.7% 45.5% 20 0 Conflict National Areas Sample Source: AmericasBarometer by LAPOP, 2013; Colombia v1. 2 Vanderbilt University | LapopSurveys.org Country and Comparative Studies Special Purpose Studies LAPOP and its partner scholars write These studies are published locally, and Consultancies extensive, book-length country and donated to libraries around the world, Through its state-of-the-art methods comparative studies for each round of and are also available as PDFs at no and wide-ranging capabilities, LAPOP is the AmericasBarometer. These studies charge on our website. All studies may at the forefront of research on public include: be downloaded at LapopSurveys.org. opinion. LAPOP can provide: • Coverage of a wide range of topics • Customized briefings and reports • Fully illustrated graphs and charts on public opinion within and across • Information on the sample design Latin America and the Caribbean • The complete version of the • Special studies on critical topics such questionnaire as corruption and crime victimization, economic sentiment, political stability, Corruption Victimization judicial trust, and law enforcement • Multi-method research (focus groups, Haiti 69.2% elite interviews, experiments, and sur- Bolivia 30.2% veys) and impact evaluation studies Paraguay 28.1% • Assistance with and advice on spe- cialized approaches to public opinion Mexico 27.2% research in any region of the world Venezuela 26.6% Peru 26.4% Ecuador 26.0% Dominican Republic 23.3% Honduras 23.0% Guatemala 20.7% Belize 20.5% LAPOP measures street- Panama 18.8% level corruption using a battery of questions Argentina 16.8% about bribe solicitation; Guyana 15.8% the graph shows the Costa Rica 15.5% percent of individuals in 2014 in each country Nicaragua 14.7% who were asked to pay Brazil 13.9% a bribe on at least one Colombia 13.6% occasion in the past year. Trinidad & Tobago 10.2% Jamaica 9.8% El Salvador 9.8% 95% Confidence Interval (with Design-Effects) United States 7.8% Uruguay 6.7% Chile 5.3% Canada 4.4% 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Source: AmericasBarometer by LAPOP, 2014; v.GM14_0912 LapopSurveys.org | LAPOP & AmericasBarometer 3 LAPOP: Methods and Practices Each country survey is implemented Pre-Survey based on a national probability design. In some cases, oversamples are col- • Solicitation of input from a vast net- lected to allow precise analysis of opin- work of academics, practitioners, and ion within sub-national regions. Survey policymakers participants are voting-age adults inter- • Use of Vanderbilt University’s experi- viewed face to face in their households, mental research lab to test new items except in Canada and the United States • Extensive in-country pre-testing of where the interviews are Web-based. survey items • Translation of surveys into several Cutting-edge methods and transparent languages spoken in the Americas practices ensure that data collected by LAPOP are of the highest quality. These • Expert design of national probability Implementation methods and practices include the samples • Rigorous training of all interview- following: • Approval from Vanderbilt University’s ers using guidelines published in Institutional Review Board for the detailed training manuals protection of human subjects • Partnerships with reputable survey organizations in the region • Widespread use of electronic handheld devices and specialized software by LAPOP to allow multilingual interviews and extensive validity checks Post-Survey • Use of cutting-edge statistical