Opinion polls as a data source in political science studies. Can they be trusted or not?
Journal Title: Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska, Sectio K: Politologia - Year 2018, Vol 0, Issue 2
Abstract
Polling of the general public opinions and behaviors in politics permanently entered mass media and also became a serious source of political commentaries and analysis. The author of this paper considers possible risks and possibilities due to exploiting results of public surveys done by research institutions and then used for scientific analysis and commenting current political processes. Research question which the author poses, pertains to credibility conditions of political surveys as the sources of data used for political analyses. This author puts forward a hypothesis that credibility of data gained from research providers depends essentially on many factors, such as methodology used, technical approach to research, realization, and familiarity with both as well as evaluative competence of scientists. The author points out good and bad points of particular research procedures and shows basic criteria used as the basis on which a political scientist may be able to assess the quality of survey’s data or compare results of various surveys. In a situation where voters’ and politicians’ communication reality is constantly changing and mass media influence the voting process, opinion polls become an important player on the political scene, and this is why they are evaluated on their credibility. It often happens that opinion pollsters are accused of deliberate lies. The following aspects were analyzed in this text: specifis of the method used in researching public opinions, surveys used in political science, detailed considerations pertaining to research character, research sample, realization indices, tools and techniques, and fially, conclusions concerning the credibility evaluation of survey’s opinion.
Authors and Affiliations
Janina Kowalik
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP455126
- DOI 10.17951/k.2018.25.2.25
- Views 67
- Downloads 0
Czynnik religijny w wyborach US midterms 2018
Celem niniejszego artykułu jest analiza wpływu czynnika religijnego na przebieg i wynik wyborów do Kongresu Stanów Zjednoczonych Ameryki, przeprowadzonych dnia 6 listopada 2018 roku. Próba uchwycenia specyfiki tego głoso...
Between sustainability and uncertainty. Political systems of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic – conditions and features
The article revisits the issue of the political functionality and social organization in Caucasian de facto entities. Basing on theoretical approaches regarding the phenomenon of unrecognized states, the paper examines c...
Formy przemocy politycznej w Internecie – próba klasyfikacji
W artykule opracowano klucze klasyfikacyjne przemocy politycznej w Internecie, która manifestuje się w analogicznym zakresie jak w rzeczywistości fizycznej – odnotowujemy zarówno przemoc fizyczną i psychiczną, jak i kult...
Konflikt polityczny na przykładzie sporu o Trybunał Konstytucyjny
Artykuł porusza problem procedur i specyfiki funkcjonowania nowoczesnego państwa demokratycznego oraz zagrożeń wynikających ze słabości demokracji mimo istnienia mechanizmów zabezpieczających ją przed nadużyciami. Proble...
Social movements and political outcomes: why both ends fail to meet
The relationships between social movement challenges and political outcomes remain strongly underresearched in the field of social movements. Here, we use the labels “social” and “political” in a broad sense to comprise...