What Validated Survey Instruments Measure Political To

Leo Migdal

-Dec 3, 2025, 9:49 PM

what validated survey instruments measure political to

Two long-standing, validated survey traditions dominate U.S. measures of political tolerance: the General Social Survey (GSS) civil liberties/“fixed-group” items and the Freedom and Tolerance / Freedom and Tolerance–style surveys that apply “least-liked” or tailored group questions; both approaches have been extensively... Recent scholarship emphasizes that measures vary in what they capture (tolerance of hateful speech vs. willingness to protect civil liberties) and that political orientation — not simply party label — often predicts tolerance differences within Democrats and Republicans [3] [4]. 1. What researchers most often use: GSS civil‑liberties items and variants

The General Social Survey’s civil‑liberties battery — asking whether particular controversial groups should be allowed to speak, assemble, or run for office — is the workhorse for U.S. political‑tolerance research because of its multi‑decade continuity and panel components; scholars treat its fixed‑group items as a validated index even as they debate which target groups to include [1] [3]. Public‑opinion analysts and academics continue to rely on these GSS items to build cross‑time indexes and to compare subgroup trends by party and ideology [3]. 2. Alternative validated approach: “least‑liked” / tailored‑target tolerance measures An influential alternative adapts tolerance questions to each respondent’s “least liked” political or social group, asking whether respondents would protect that group’s civil liberties; this tailored approach is central to the Freedom and Tolerance...

The tailored method aims to reveal tolerance toward genuinely disliked outgroups — a different construct than willingness to tolerate a fixed list of groups — and researchers have used it in cross‑national and U.S. studies [2]. Competing Interests: The author has declared that no competing interests exist. Received 2022 Feb 23; Accepted 2022 Jul 20; Collection date 2022. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Online surveys are becoming the dominant form for survey data collection.

This presents a problem for the measurement of political knowledge, because, according to recent scholarship, unsupervised measurement of political knowledge in web-based surveys suffers from respondent dishonesty. This study examines the validity of five possible survey proxies for political knowledge: self-assessed sophistication, political interest, internal political efficacy, accuracy of party placements on a left-right dimension and political participation. The analysis draws on a 2020 survey data (n = 1,097) and partial replications with identical measures from a 2008 survey data (n = 1,021) from Finland. Through several tests, the five proxies are assessed in terms of convergent validity, criterion validity and predictive validity. Across all tests, political interest performs best on all dimensions of validity and demonstrates largely identical relationships with political knowledge. Although the survey measurement of political interest and political knowledge may partly tap into slightly different constructs, the analysis supports the conclusion that political interest is the most suitable survey proxy for political knowledge...

Political knowledge, often defined as ‘the range of factual information about politics that is stored in long-term memory’ [1], belongs to the most commonly deployed variables in the study of political behavior. Political knowledge is the prime empirical indicator of political sophistication, i.e., expertise in the political domain [2]. Used both as a dependent and an independent variable, political knowledge is widely considered as an important facilitator of meaningful political participation. Its analytical significance is based on a widespread scholarly consensus, according to which an enlightened citizenry is a crucial condition for the functioning of representative democracy [1]. Sarah Lee AI generated Llama-4-Maverick-17B-128E-Instruct-FP8 7 min read · May 25, 2025 Survey research is a cornerstone of comparative politics, allowing researchers to gather data on a wide range of topics, from public opinion and voting behavior to policy preferences and demographic characteristics.

In this article, we will explore the world of survey research in comparative politics, from design to analysis, and learn how to effectively apply these methods. Survey research involves collecting data through self-report measures, typically using questionnaires or interviews. It is a powerful tool for understanding complex social and political phenomena, as it allows researchers to gather information from a large number of respondents in a relatively short period of time. The importance of survey research lies in its ability to provide insights into the attitudes, behaviors, and characteristics of populations, which can inform policy decisions, electoral strategies, and social interventions. Survey research has a wide range of applications in comparative politics, including: Despite its many benefits, survey research is not without its challenges.

Some of the key difficulties associated with survey research include: WASHINGTON, D.C. — Eight in 10 U.S. adults agree on a variety of issues that reflect core aspects of U.S. democracy. These include that using violence to achieve political goals is never OK; that elected leaders should compromise to get things done; and that having a mix of races, religions and cultures benefits the nation.

Americans also express a desire to limit the political influence of wealthy individuals and businesses and believe there is a difference between facts and opinions. These findings are the first from the Kettering Foundation/Gallup Democracy for All Project and are based on a multimodal (web and mail) survey of over 20,000 U.S. adults, conducted July 7 to Aug. 25. This is a five-year project designed to measure Americans’ views of how well democracy serves the U.S. and Americans from a variety of different backgrounds.

The full report details how Americans largely agree that democracy is the best form of government but do not believe it is functioning well right now. As part of the survey, Americans were shown five pairs of contrasting perspectives on how democracy and U.S. society should function and were asked to choose which perspective comes closer to their view. Large majorities of all key subgroups of Americans reject violence, favor compromise and embrace a multicultural society. There are modest differences in some of these views by party, age and education. For example, Democrats, independents and college graduates are somewhat more likely than Republicans and non-college graduates to see multiculturalism as a strength.

Older Americans and Democrats are more likely than younger Americans and Republicans to endorse compromise. Age differences are even more pronounced when it comes to rejecting the use of political violence, with senior citizens most opposed and young adults the least. This relationship will be explored in more depth in an article to be released next week. Another question in the survey, asked on a five-point agree/disagree scale, finds that eight in 10 Americans strongly agree (39%) or agree (41%) that everyone, regardless of their views, has the right to free,... Just 5% disagree, and 15% are neutral.

What Validated Survey Instruments Measure Political To

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Two Long-standing, Validated Survey Traditions Dominate U.S. Measures Of Political

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The Tailored Method Aims To Reveal Tolerance Toward Genuinely Disliked

This Presents A Problem For The Measurement Of Political Knowledge,

Political Knowledge, Often Defined As ‘the Range Of Factual Information