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VAR CF0875 WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT NATL PROBLEM
COLUMNS 674-675
NUMERIC
MD EQ 0 OR GE 97
1960: What would you personally feel are the most important problems
the government should try to take care of when the new President and
Congress take office in January?
1964: As you well know, there are many serious problems in this
country and in other parts of the world. The question is, what should
be done about them and who should do it. We want to ask you about
problems you think the government in Washington should do something
about and any problems it should stay out of. First, what would you
personally feel are the most important problems the government should
try to take care of when the new President and Congress take office in
January?
1966: What do you personally feel are the most important problems
which the government in Washington should try to take care of?
1968,1980,1982: As you well know, the government faces many serious
problems in this country and in other parts of the world. What do you
personally feel are the most important problems which the government
in Washington should try to take care of?
1970: As you well know, there are many serious problems in this
country and in other parts of the world. We'd like to start out by
talking with you about some of them. What do you personally feel are
the most important problems which the government in Washington should
try to take care of?
1972-1978,1984 and later: What do you think are the most important
problems facing this country? (IF MORE THAN ONE PROBLEM:) Of all
you've told me (1996-later: Of those you've mentioned), what would you
say is the single most important problem the country faces?
'MOST IMPORTANT PROBLEM'
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USE WEIGHT VARIABLE VCF0009/VCF0009A/VCF0009B.
SEE NOTE 7
Because of changes in the full sets of codes which have been used over
time, this variable is limited to preserving the major groupings which
have been utilized with essential consistency through all years. Note
7 gives exact study-by-study versions of the texts of individual codes
which have been collapsed to form the VCF0875 group categories.
1992 NOTE: Upon review of the history of this question in preparing
Note 7, some corrections have been made to previous versions of this
variable in several cases; abortion responses previously coded 9
'Social Welfare' have been moved to 7 'Public Order' [i.e., "nonracial
civil rights"], and responses about veterans benefits have been
recoded from code 3 'Foreign Affairs and National Defense' to 9
'Social Welfare.'
In the original 1960, 1966, and 1970 NES datasets, one multiple-
response variable was coded which included up to 3 mentions (1970:
4). In 1960 and 1970, responses were described as coded in order of
importance in cases where R mentioned more than one problem: the
ranking of problems according to importance was determined elsewhere
in the interview, in reply to questions not appearing in the dataset.
Within the NES documentation for these two years, it was also stated
that, in cases of more than one mentioned problem, if order of
importance was 'not clear,' responses were then coded in order of
mention. From the 1966 documentation, it is not apparent if multiple
responses were coded in order of importance or if they were coded in
order of mention. The first CODED response in 1960, 1966, and 1970
have been used for VCF0875.
In the original 1964 and 1968 NES datasets, one single-response
variable was coded. The variable was described as including, in cases
of more than one given response, the mention considered most important
by R (as determined elsewhere in the interview, in reply to questions
not appearing in the dataset). Documentation in both years added that
if order of importance was 'not clear,' responses were coded in order
of mention: in such event, the single variable appearing in the NES
dataset represented the first mention. The single variable from 1964
and 1968 have been used for VCF0.
In the 1972 and later datasets, variables appeared for each of three
possible mentions, and a fourth variable, asking R to select the most
important problem (if more than one was mentioned), was also
included. If R gave only 1 mention durin these years, it was
repeated in the fourth var, which is used here [exceptions: 1972 and
1978; for these 2 years the 1st variable has been incorporated into
VCF0 for single-mention Rs while the 4th (ranking) var has been used
for multiple-mention Rs].
Note that, in 1972 and later, for cases where R mentioned two or three
problems but MD (DK or NA) appeared in the fourth or 'choice'
variable (i.e., R did not rank the problems by importance), the first
mention has not been included in VCF0, but MD has been coded.
EXCEPTION: in 1986, in 142 cases the interviewer mistakenly did not
ask R to rank problems by importance when R gave more than one
mention. In these 142 cases, the first mention of R was incorporated
into the fourth (ranking) variable and has also been coded here.
In 1960, 1964 and 1966, the DK category was combined with "no issues"
and is included in code 00.
In 1992, a new code in the full set of codes (code 765) was introduced
for "gays in the military;" this has been recoded to 07 [nonracial
civil rights] rather than code 3 [national defense].
Only 1 case (#3268) was assigned this code and may be reassigned to
code 3 if users prefer to interpret the response as a military issue.
In 1996 and 2000, a half-sample of respondents were selected to be
administered this question.
01. AGRICULTURAL
02. ECONOMICS; BUSINESS; CONSUMER ISSUES
(includes foreign investment, tariffs/protection of U.S.
industries, international trade deficit/balance of payments,
immigration, interstate commerce/transportation; does not
include unemployment [09], defense spending [03], foreign
[03] or government spending on domestic social welfare [09])
03. FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
(includes: foreign aid, defense spending, the space program;
does not include: international trade deficit [02])
04. GOVERNMENT FUNCTIONING
(not "the economy" [02])
05. LABOR ISSUES
(not unemployment [09])
06. NATURAL RESOURCES
07. PUBLIC ORDER
(includes: crime, drugs, civil liberties and non-racial
civil rights, women's rights, abortion rights, gun control,
family/social/religious/moral 'decay,' church and state,
etc.)
08. RACIAL PROBLEMS
(note: this primarily includes civil rights issues and
racial equality; monetary assistance to minorities is
primarily found in code 9, however there is a slight overlap:
see Note 7 for specific codes; note especially 1988 code 300
and 1966-1972 codes 61-63)
09. SOCIAL WELFARE
(includes: population, child care, aid to education, the
elderly, health care, housing, poverty, unemployment,
'welfare' etc.)
97. Other problems (incl. specific campaign issues)
98. DK (exc. 1960, 1964, 1966)
99. NA; INAP, no post IW (1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992,
1996); abbrev. telephone IW (1984); Form I, III or IV
(1972); no pre IW (1960); short form IW (1992); question not
administered in assigned half-sample [see VCF0012a] (1996,
2000); question not used
00. None; "there were no issues;" "there was no campaign in my
district" (non-presidential years); DK (1960,1964,1966 only)
1960: 50 1964: 36 1966: 19
1968: 48 1970: 39(type 0) 1972: 546,548
1974: 2079 1976: 3689 1978: 311,315
1980: 979 1982: 299 1984: 993
1986: 306 1988: 817 1990: 326
1992: 5726 1994: 706 1996: 961141
1998: 980346 2000: 000436
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Walter Mebane
2003-02-17