RAPID: Perpetual Minority Government? Electoral Choice in the Midst of Political and Economic Crises in a Contemporary Mature Democracy

加拿大似乎正面临一个削弱政治僵局的时代，根深蒂固的地区和种族语言分歧使任何一个政党都无法在议会中获得多数席位。过去的三次选举都产生了一个少数派政府，而且很有可能连续第四次出现少数派政府。当民主制度在一系列连续的选举中产生了稳定的多数政府，转而产生连续的短命的少数政府时，人们对公民的反应知之甚少。在此背景下，本研究重点关注以下主题。首先，看似无穷无尽的短命少数派政府如何影响对加拿大政治制度的支持？第二，加拿大人将持续的不稳定归咎于谁？第三，加拿大人是否希望重大的制度变革？如果是，他们希望什么样的变革？第四，公民们认为谁应对加拿大面临的严重的经济和政治问题负责？第五，公民如何对处理（或未能处理）这些问题的政党给予信任和指责？第六，也是最后一点，这些因素是如何影响政党选择和选民投票率的？为了回答这些问题，研究人员使用了两波网络调查，第一波涉及3000名受访者。第一波将在选举前进行。第二波将涉及在选举后与最初一批受访者的重新接触。调查数据将在研究人员收到数据集的一年内公布。此外，本调查以合作国会选举研究为模型。美国国家科学基金会的支持为调查的一系列核心问题提供了资源。这允许其他学者购买调查模块，以解决他们感兴趣的具体问题。他们不必为核心问题买单，从而可以充分利用自己稀缺的资源。

Canada appears to be facing an era of debilitating political deadlock where deep-seated regional and ethno-linguistic cleavages prevent any single party from capturing a majority of seats in the Parliament. The last three elections have each resulted in a minority government, and a fourth consecutive minority government looks likely. Little is known about how citizens respond when democratic systems that, for a number of successive elections, produced stable governments with comfortable majorities switch to producing successive short-lived minority governments. Given this context, this study focuses on the following topics. First, how does the seemingly endless procession of short-lived minority governments impact support for the Canadian political system? Second, who do Canadians blame for the ongoing instability? Third, do Canadians desire significant institutional change and, if so, what changes do they want? Fourth, who do the citizens believe is responsible for the serious economic and political problems facing Canada? Fifth, how do citizens assign credit and blame to parties for handling (or failure to handle) these problems? Sixth and finally, how do these factors affect party choice and electoral turnout? To answer these questions, the researchers use a two wave internet survey involving 3,000 respondents in the initial wave. The initial wave will occur prior to the election. The second wave will involve recontacts after the election with the initial set of interviewees. The data from the survey will be made public within one year of the researchers receiving the data sets. In addition, this survey is modeled after the Cooperative Congressional Election Study. The support from the National Science Foundation provides resources for a core set of questions on the survey. This allows other scholars to purchase modules on the survey to address specific questions of interest to them. They are able to stretch their own scarce resources by not having to pay for the core set of questions.