Afrobarometer Round 5: The Quality of Democracy and Governance in 34 African Countries, 2011-2013 Version 1

The Afrobarometer project was designed to collect and disseminate information regarding Africans' views on democracy, governance, economic reform, civil society, and quality of life. This particular data collection was concerned with the attitudes and opinions of the citizens of 34 nations within the continent of Africa. Respondents in a face-to-face interview were asked to rate their president and the president's administration in overall performance, to state the most important issues facing their nation, and to evaluate the effectiveness of certain continental and international institutions. Opinions were gathered on the role of the government in improving the economy, whether corruption existed in local and national government, whether government officials were responsive to problems of the general population, and whether local government officials, the police, the courts, the overall criminal justice system, and the National Electoral Commission could be trusted. Additionally respondents were polled about their political involvement and opinions on controversial topics. Economic questions addressed the past, present, and future of the country's and the respondents' living conditions. Background variables include age, gender, ethnicity, education, religious affiliation, language spoken most at home, whether the respondent was the head of the household, current and past employment status, and language used in interview. In addition, the interviewer's gender, race, and education level is provided. The data are not weighted, however, this collection contains the weight variables WITHINWT and COMBINWT, that should be used in any analysis. These weights were created to account for individual selection probabilities. Response Rates: For information on response rates, please refer to the Original P.I. Documentation section of the ICPSR codebook. The Afrobarometer uses a clustered, stratified, multi-stage, area probability sample design. The sample is designed as a representative cross-section of all citizens of voting age in a given country. The goal is to give every adult citizen an equal and known chance of selection for interview. This objective is reached by (a) strictly applying random selection methods at every stage of sampling and by (b) applying sampling with probability proportionate to population size wherever possible. A randomly selected sample of 1,200 cases allows inferences to national adult populations with a margin of sampling error of no more than plus or minus 3 percent with a confidence level of 95 percent. If the sample size is increased to 2,400, the confidence interval shrinks to plus or minus 2 percent. Datasets: DS1: Afrobarometer Round 5: The Quality of Democracy and Governance in 34 African Countries, 2011-2013 Citizens of 34 African Countries aged 18 years or older. Smallest Geographic Unit: Region face-to-face interviewAdditional information on the Afrobarometer Survey can be found by visiting the Afrobarometer Web site.