GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE AMERICAN NATIONAL ELECTION STUDY, 1984 The NES/CPS American National Election Study, 1984 was conducted by the Center for Political Studies of the Institute for Social Research, under the overall direction of Warren E. Miller. Santa Traugott is the Director of Studies. This is the eighteenth in a series of studies of American national elections produced by the Political Behavior Program of the Survey Research Center and the Center for Political Studies, and the fourth study to be conducted under the auspices of National Science Foundation grants (Nos. SOC77-08885 and SES-8341310) providing long-term support for the National Election Studies. Since 1978 the NES election studies have been designed by a National Board of Overseers, the members of which meet several times a year to plan content and administration of the major study components. Board members during the 1984 planning phase included: Ray Wolfinger, Chair, University of California, Berkeley; Richard A. Brody, Stanford University; Heinz Eulau, Stanford University; Morris P. Fiorina, Harvard University; Stanley Kelley, Jr., Princeton University; Donald R. Kinder, University of Michigan; David R. Mayhew, Yale University; Warren E. Miller, Arizona State University, ex officio; David O. Sears, University of California, Los Angeles; and J. Merrill Shanks, University of California, Berkeley. As part of the planning process, workshops may be held, a special planning committee appointed, a pilot study conducted, and stimulus letters sent to the members of the scholarly community soliciting their input on study plans. The 1984 Study Planning Committee included several Board members (Don Kinder, Chair; Richard Brody, Stanley Kelley, Warren Miller, ex officio, David Sears and Ray Wolfinger) and three other scholars, Stanley Feldman, University of Kentucky; Ethel Klein, Columbia University; and Steven J. Rosenstone, Yale University. The Planning Committee began meeting in February of 1983. A pilot study was carried out in the summer of 1983 for the purpose of developing new instrumentation for the 1984 Election Study. New items were tested on economic well-being, group identification, values, political participation and candidate affect. Data from the pilot study are available through the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR 8178). Results from the pilot study were used by the Planning committee in formulating recommendations to the Board about study content for the 1984 Election Study. (See Appendix D).