VAR CF0614 IS GOVT TOO COMPLICATED

VAR CF0614    IS GOVT TOO COMPLICATED
              COLUMNS 516-516
              NUMERIC
              MD EQ 0


        'Sometimes politics and government seem so complicated that a person
        like me can't really understand what's going on.'
        -------------------------------------------------------------------

        USE WEIGHT VARIABLE VCF0009/VCF0009A/VCF0009B.

        SEE INTRODUCTORY TEXT OF VCF0609.

        The order in which questions VCF0609-VCF0618 appear may vary from
        year to year.

        In 1988, the placement of this variable within Post question order
        varied according to questionnaire 'Form' (see VCF0012).

        In 1966 this question was asked as a Likert Scale (i.e., strongly
        agree/ agree/ disagree/ strongly disagree) which was collapsed.

        Prior to 1988, response options were read to R.  In 1988 and later,
        the response options were shown to R in the Respondent Booklet.
        In 2000, response options for personal interviews were shown to R
        in the Respondent Booklet and were optionally read aloud; for
        telephone interviews, response options were read aloud.

        Note:  In 1988 and later, this question was asked with the following
        response options shown to R:
           agree strongly
           agree somewhat
           neither agree nor disagree
           disagree somewhat
           disagree strongly

        Therefore, especially due to the large number of responses in category
        'neither agree nor disagree,' THE DISTRIBUTIONS 1988 AND LATER DIFFER
        DRAMATICALLY FROM PREVIOUS YEARS.

        Code 1 includes: 'strongly agree' and 'agree' from the 1966 data;
        'agree strongly' and 'agree somewhat' from the 1988 and 1990 data.
        Code 2 includes: 'strongly disagree' and 'disagree' from the 1966
        data;  'disagree somewhat' and 'disagree strongly' from the 1988 and
        1990 data.

             1.  Agree
             2.  Disagree
             3.  Neither agree nor disagree (1988 and later only)
             9.  DK; depends; not sure; can't say, refused to say

             0.  NA; INAP, no pre IW (1952,1960); no post IW (1968,1976,1980,
                   1988,1992,1996,2000); question not used

        1952:  125          1956:  112       1960:  111
        1964:  176          1966:  117       1968:  519
        1970:  146(type 0)  1972:  271       1974:  2224
        1976:  3817         1978:  353       1980:  1032
        1984:  314          1988:  939       1990:  510
        1992:  6104         1994:  1039      1996:  961246
        1998:  980523       2000:  001529


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