Marginaal: het lijk uit de kast. Non-respons in het Nationaal Kiezersonderzoek

Samenvatting

The National Election Study has been conducted at the time of parliamentary elections in the Netherlands since 1971. Over the years it has developed into a widely used forum for opinions on the attitudes & behaviors of Dutch voters. Now, however, Gerard Visscher (1995) has called into question the validity of the studies, considering that nonresponse had climbed from 21% in 1967 to 53% in 1994. Moreover, the number of respondents who could not be reached (due to absence or illness) had increased from 12% to 43%. Such findings lead to doubt of assertions that the number of those seriously interested in politics has risen sharply from 54% to 79%. The election studies clearly have become a poor example of a longitudinal study, due to increasing nonresponse. The problem of differential nonresponse should be taken more seriously. 8 References. M. Meeks