DOI: 10.17608/k6.auckland.2000925.v2
title: ISSP1996: Role of Government III

description: The sixth of 20 years of successful surveys for the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) in New Zealand, run by Professor Philip Gendall in the Department of Marketing at Massey University.ISSP is a continuing annual programme of cross-national collaboration on surveys covering topics important for social science research. It brings together pre-existing social science projects and coordinates research goals, thereby adding a cross-national, cross-cultural perspective to the individual national studies. ISSP researchers especially concentrate on developing questions that are meaningful and relevant to all countries, and can be expressed in an equivalent manner in all relevant languages.The sample was selected using the 1996 New Zealand electoral rolls, which contained the names of all registered voters 18 years and over. New Zealand was at the time divided into 65 electorates (60 general and 5 Māori) of approximately equal numerical size. A systematic random sample of approximately 30 names and addresses was selected from each electorate, giving a total sample of 1,890 individuals.The achieved sample was generally representative of the New Zealand population 18 years and over, but it contained a slightly higher proportion of women than men in the population. In addition, underrepresentation of under 30s and overrepresentation of over 30s existed, but these differences are unlikely to have had a significant effect on the survey’s results.A verbose rundown on topics covered follows.The role of government. Attitude to observance of laws; attitudes to various forms of protest against the government; willingness to participate and actual participation in public protest events or demonstrations against the government; views regarding freedom of speech for extremists; attitude to miscarriage of justice; perceived threat to the private sphere from governmental data collection and computer networks (data protection).Income equalisation as government task and stand on economy-related measures of government; attitude to increase in government expenditures for environmental protection, public health system, the police, education system, defence, pensions, unemployment benefits, culture; assessment of the power of trade unions, business and government; assessment of the governmental responsibility for social political tasks (protection of old people, students, housing supply, jobs, economic growth through aid to industry, price stability, etc.).Political interest; general attitudes to politics and the political system (subjective assessment of the political possibilities to influence (efficacy), political extent to which informed, politicians and election promises, satisfaction with democracy); tax reduction versus expansion of social services; assessment of tax equity with various income groups; attitude to privatisation or nationalisation of selected public facilities; reducing inflation versus fight against unemployment; preference for increased social services or reduction in debt; attitude to amount of income tax for first and second job.Demography: sex; age; living together with a partner; school education; employment status of respondent as well as partner; occupation (ILO/ISCO Code); employment in the public sector; self-employed occupation; hours worked each week; supervisor status; income; family income; religious denomination; religiousness; self-classification of social class; union membership; party preference (left-right orientation); behaviour at the polls in the last election; reasons for not voting; size of household; composition of household; degree of urbanisation; city size; region; ethnic or national affiliation or origins.