Afrobarometer: Round 2.5 Survey of South Africa, 2004 Archival Version

The Afrobarometer project was designed to assess attitudes toward democracy, markets, and civil society in several sub-Saharan African nations, and to track the evolution of such attitudes in those nations over time. This particular survey was concerned with the attitudes and opinions of the citizens of South Africa. Respondents gave their opinions of the performance of South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki and elected officials in local and national government, the government's handling of issues such as crime and the economy, the most important issues facing the nation, and whether the country was heading in the right direction. A series of questions addressed respondents' living conditions, the economic conditions and political influence of their own ethnic group compared to other groups in the country, and whether they felt more attached to their national identity or their ethnic group. Views were sought on the past, present, and future of economic conditions in the country, economic policies and reform, political parties, income inequality, civil rights, equal rights for women, and whether laws were enforced equally. Respondents rated their level of trust in the government, military, courts, the media, and others, the level of corruption existing in these groups, the ease of obtaining assistance with securing documents and government services, the methods by which respondents did so, and how often in the past year respondents had paid a bribe to a government official. Other questions asked about respondents' interest in public affairs, their level of civic engagement, and their satisfaction with the way democracy and elections worked in South Africa. Respondents were quizzed on their knowledge of government officials, presidential term limits, and government policy, and gave their interpretation of the concept of democracy. Additional questions asked about media sources of information, respondents' ownership of consumer goods such as books and automobiles, their physical and mental health status, and whether any close friends or relatives had died of AIDS. Information was also collected on the presence of institutions, public utilities, and soliders in the area. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, ethnicity, education level, language, employment status, occupation, voter registration status and participation history, political party affiliation, religious preference, religious participation, and type of residential area (e.g., urban, rural, etc.). The data contain a weight variable (WITHINWT) that should be used in analyzing the data. The weight variable adjusts the distribution of the sample to account for oversamples or undersamples with respect to province and race. Please refer to the codebook for more information on weighting. A new sample is drawn for each round of Afrobarometer surveys, regardless of whether or not a previous survey was conducted in the country. Wherever possible, and always in the first stage of sampling, random sampling was conducted with probability proportionate to population size (PPPS). The purpose was to guarantee that larger (i.e., more populated) geographical units have a proportionally greater probability of being chosen into the sample. The sample was drawn by taking the smallest geographic units, Census Enumeration Areas (EAs), and stratifying all EAs across the country into separate lists according to province, race, and urban/rural status. Six hundred EAs were then randomly selected from these lists with the probability proportionate to its size in the overall population as represented in the 2001 Census. Four interviews were then randomly conducted within each EA, and a respondent aged 18 years of age or older was randomly selected from each household. A gender quota ensured that every other interview was with a female. Datasets: DS1: Afrobarometer: Round 2.5 Survey of South Africa, 2004 Citizens of South Africa aged 18 or older. face-to-face interview; on-site questionnaire(1) The data available for download are not weighted, and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis. (2) The CASEID variable was created for use with online analysis. (3) The DISTRICT variable was converted from character to numeric and recoded to protect respondent confidentiality. (4) The meaning of the unlabeled numeric codes in the verbatim responses in variables Q35A, Q35B, Q35C, Q43A1, Q43B1, Q43C1, Q44AVERB, Q44BVERB, and Q44CVERB are unknown. (5) More information about Afrobarometer research projects can be found via the Afrobarometer Web site.