About Us - Read More
|
Since the 1970s, Seligson, his along with partner institutions in the Americas, his colleagues and students have systematically surveyed the citizens of Latin America on their political views—specifically on democratic values and their behaviors related to democracy.
These surveys have given rise to scores of studies and publications on various aspects of democratic values and behaviors in the Americas. Some of the topics included are: corruption victimization, citizen participation in and evaluation of local government, trust in government institutions, political tolerance, civil society participation, evaluation of the economy, support for democracy, as well as a broad range of socio-economic and demographic information on each respondent. The project has regularly published in-depth analyses of the data collected in Spanish-language monographs in countries throughout Latin America. Through years of polling in most of the countries of Latin America, LAPOP has developed a treasure-trove of databases of public opinion information about political viewpoints across Latin America. This data has been the basis of scores of articles in professional journals, and has been the basis of many of the 25 Ph.D. dissertations that Seligson has supervised over the years; it has also been utilized by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in its efforts to promote Latin American democracy and, perhaps most significantly, by the governments of several Latin American countries. The data produced has been utilized as well by the World Bank in its Governance measures. USAID has provided major support for LAPOP and is now helping to fund five Latin American graduate students studying for their doctorates under Seligson at Vanderbilt. Recently, the project has received support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), as well as the Inter-American Development Bank. The Latin American Public Opinion Project has conducted more than 100 surveys analyzing major topics of great interest to political and social scientists, Latin Americanists, government officials, and interested citizens. LAPOP suveys have been conducted in the following countries: ARGENTINA, BOLIVIA, BELIZE, BRAZIL, CHILE, COLOMBIA, COSTA RICA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, ECUADOR, GUATEMALA, GUYANA, HAITI, HONDURAS, JAMAICA, MEXICO, NICARAGUA, PANAMA, PARAGUAY, PERU, EL SALVADOR, URUGUAY, VENEZUELA as well as for ALBANIA, ISRAEL, MADAGASCAR, CANADA and UNITED STATES. |