DOI: 10.3886/icpsr04478
title: CBS News Monthly Poll #4, March 1996
title: Archival Version

description: This poll, fielded March 31-April 2, 1996, is part of a
 continuing series of monthly surveys that solicit public opinion on
 the presidency and on a range of other political and social issues.
 Respondents were asked to give their opinions of President Bill
 Clinton and his handling of the presidency, foreign policy, and the
 economy. Respondents were asked about the condition of the national
 economy, their own household's financial situation, and how well
 members of the United States Congress were doing their jobs. A series
 of questions addressed the 1996 presidential election, including how
 much attention respondents were paying to the election, for whom they
 would vote, which issues were important in their vote, and the changes
 that would take place if Bill Clinton or Bob Dole were elected in
 November. Opinions were solicited on presidential candidates Bill
 Clinton, Bob Dole, Pat Buchanan, Ralph Nader, and Ross Perot, as well
 as Elizabeth Dole, Colin Powell, Vice President Al Gore, First Lady
 Hillary Clinton, and the Democratic and Republican parties. Views were
 sought on the current primary system, the benefits of a third
 political party, whether it was better for the president to belong to
 the same political party that controlled Congress, and the role of the
 federal government in promoting traditional values and solving
 national problems. Additional topics addressed abortion, school
 uniforms, a proposed minimum wage increase, and the V-chip, a computer
 chip that allowed parents to control television viewing. Information
 was also collected on whether respondents considered themselves part
 of the Christian conservative political movement, whether they were
 employed in a blue-collar job, how concerned they were that they or a
 member of their household would become unemployed in the next year,
 and whether they listened to political call-in radio shows.
 Demographic variables include sex, race, age, household income,
 education level, type of residential area (e.g., urban or rural),
 religious preference, political party affiliation, political
philosophy, and voter participation history and registration status.
description: The data contain a weight variable that should be used for
analysis.
description: Stratified random digit dialing. Within households,
 respondents were selected using a method developed by Leslie Kish and
 modified by Charles Backstrom and Gerald Hursh (see Backstrom and
 Hursh, SURVEY RESEARCH, Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press,
1963).
description: Datasets: 
DS1: CBS News Monthly Poll #4, March 1996
description: Adult population of the United States aged 18 and over
having a telephone at home.
description: telephone interview(1) The data available for download are not weighted,
 and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis. (2) The data
 and documentation for this study were acquired from the
 Roper Center for Public
 Opinion Research. (3) The variables AREA_CODE and EXCH_CODE were
 recoded for confidentiality. (4) Value labels for unknown codes were
 added in variables Q46 and Q56. (5) The original data file contained
 three records per case and was reformatted into a data file with one
 record per case. (6) Some questions were asked only of respondents who
 answered that they were registered to vote. Please refer to the data
 collection instrument for information on which variables were asked
only of registered voters.