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Vanderbilt's Latin American Public Opinion Project receives major financial boost
1/31/2008
11:15 am
 Mitchell Seligson (photo by Stephen Barrett) “This generous support will enable LAPOP, a consortium of universities and research institutes throughout the Americas, to continue its AmericasBarometer surveys through 2014,” said Mitchell A. Seligson, the Centennial Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt and founder and director of LAPOP. Every two years the organization conducts interviews with random samples of some 1,500 adults in 20 countries in North and South America. As the surveys are completed, research teams write extended analyses of the data and present them to policymakers, citizen groups, scholars and students in the host countries. “These studies provide the nations an objective look at many important aspects of democracy and governance,” Seligson said. “For example, they measure the extent to which citizens are committed to democratic values, participate actively in their democracies and engage in civil society. The surveys also measure the darker side of governance through the corruption victimization index and crime victimization scale that they include.” An important aspect of LAPOP is training the next generation of graduate students to handle the complex tasks of sample and questionnaire design and data analysis. Currently, there are 11 doctoral students in the program, and the USAID has provided fellowship support for several of the students. Last December senior scholars in the program along with USAID Democracy and Governance officers met in San Salvador, El Salvador, to decide upon the questions to be included in the 2008 round of surveys. Interviews are underway, with more than 30,000 expected to be conducted. Elizabeth Zechmeister, an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Davis, will join LAPOP in the fall as assistant director. LAPOP also has received funding from the InterAmerican Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme. At Vanderbilt, the project is supported by the Center for the Americas, the College of Arts and Science and Department of Political Science. Media Contact: Ann Marie Deer Owens, (615) 322-NEWS annmarie.owens@vanderbilt.edu |
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