SGER: Support for Democracy in Thailand: Public Attitudes toward Democratic Process under the Constitution of 1997

这项调查可以在定于1998年5月举行的泰国议会选举期间对选民特征进行全国调查。选举是在非常有限的准备时间内宣布的，到目前为止，在国家一级没有进行这样的研究。在泰国选举的背景下，及时宣布预定的选举是一个难得的机会来审视选民的态度。这些选举将是根据1997年9月27日通过的新宪法举行的首次选举。这部宪法对选举制度和泰国议会的代表结构作出了重大改变。因此，拟议的研究将确定对民主态度的基线，这对今后的学术研究非常重要，并为对以前的选举制度进行回顾性研究提供基准。这项调查是在四所泰国大学的合作下进行的，使用了由首席研究员在早期研究中开发的抽样框架。这些问题旨在衡量政治兴趣、政治知识、政治效能和政治文化的水平。这项研究的重点是人们对新宪法下的民主制度和权利的态度，以此作为评估泰国民主状况的基础。要收集的数据集应该对其他对该主题感兴趣的学者有价值。

This investigation allows the conduct of a national survey of voter characteristics during Thai parliamentary elections scheduled for May, 1998. The elections have been called with very limited lead time and, to date, no studies such as this exist at the national level. The timely announcement of scheduled elections represents a rare opportunity to examine voter attitudes in the context of a Thai election. These elections will be the first held under a new constitution, adopted September 27, 1997. This constitution makes significant changes in the system of elections and in the structures of representation in the Thai parliament. Thus, the proposed study will establish a baseline of attitudes toward democracy that will be highly important for future scholarship, as well as providing a benchmark for retrospective studies of the previous electoral system. The survey is conducted with the collaboration of four Thai universities, using a sampling framework developed by the principal investigator in an earlier study. Questions are designed to measure levels of political interest, political knowledge, political efficacy, and political culture. The study focuses on attitudes toward democratic institutions and rights under the new constitution as a basis for evaluating the status of Thai democracy. The dataset to be gathered should be of value to other scholars interested in the topic.