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IDASA Local Election Study 1995

South Africa, 1995
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Reference ID
zaf-idasa-iles-1995-v1
Producer(s)
Institute for Democracy in South Africa
Metadata
Documentation in PDF DDI/XML JSON
Created on
Oct 24, 2012
Last modified
Jun 20, 2020
Page views
35891
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  • Study Description
  • Data Description
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  • Identification
  • Version
  • Scope
  • Coverage
  • Producers and sponsors
  • Sampling
  • Data Collection
  • Data Access
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  • Metadata production
  • Identification

    Survey ID number

    zaf-idasa-iles-1995-v1

    Title

    IDASA Local Election Study 1995

    Country
    Name Country code
    South Africa zaf
    Study type

    Public Opinion Survey

    Series Information

    Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA). IDASA Local Election Study 1995 [dataset]. Version 1. Cape Town: IDASA [producer], 1995. Cape Town: DataFirst [distributor], 2012. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25828/7c6g-zd73

    Abstract

    The 1995 community elections were widely seen to be the closing chapter in South Africa's transition to democracy. These elections would provide citizens with a direct and equal voice in government at the most basic level. They were also seen as the vehicle which would restore to local government the legitimacy necessary to begin the process of reconstruction and development, as well as the authority to bring about law and order in areas where it had broken down. Until these elections, local government in towns and metropolitan areas had been fragmented, based on racially determined, apartheid “group areas”. There were virtually no formal structures of local government in rural areas. Whites (except those in rural areas) elected fully democratic councils to govern themselves. Since 1983, Coloured and Indian citizens were able to vote for local councils with limited powers under the Tricameral parliamentary structures. Africans living in Black townships inside “white” South Africa were legally able to vote for councillors to the “Black Local Authorities”. Local government in the “Black Local Authorities” and the local Tricameral structures in Coloured and Indian communities were constantly challenged. Rent and service boycotts, election stay-aways and physical intimidation of councillors left these governments barren of leaders, bankrupt and illegitimate. For Africans in the “national states” or “self-governing territories”, local government was even in greater disarray, with some urban areas having nominal local councils, and most rural areas being governed by a mixture of traditional leaders, regional services councils or development corporations.

    The IDASA survey would provide first systematic evidence on individual attitudes toward the local government system in South Africa. The examination of the legitimacy of local government focused on four key areas: whether people felt local councils were in touch with public opinion; whether they felt able to influence local government; whether they trusted local councils to govern well; and whether they thought local councils were able to address key problems effectively.

    Kind of Data

    Sample survey data

    Unit of Analysis

    Households and individuals

    Version

    Version Description

    v1: Edited, anonymised data for licensed distribution

    Version Date

    1995

    Scope

    Notes

    Basic information was collected on respondents, including age, occupation, highest level of qualification, monthly household income, language, type of living area, population group and gender. The survey focused on issues such as voting intentions, knowledge of voting procedures and party identification. It also examined attitudes towards democracy, evaluations of government performance, views of local councils and economic evaluations.

    Keywords
    political attitudes democracy

    Coverage

    Geographic Coverage

    The survey has national coverage.

    Geographic Unit

    The lowest level of geographic aggregation covered by the data is magisterial district

    Universe

    The survey covered all adult South Africans who were eligible to vote in the 1995 local election

    Producers and sponsors

    Primary investigators
    Name
    Institute for Democracy in South Africa
    Funding Agency/Sponsor
    Name Role
    United States Agency for International Development Funder

    Sampling

    Sampling Procedure

    The sample was drawn using a multi-stage, clustered random probability sample disproportionately stratified by province, population group and community size (metro, city, large town, small town, village and rural).

    Weighting

    Due to disproportionate sample, it was necessary to weight the data up to the universe, i.e. the South African voting public. The sample was weighted according to province, age, gender, type of area, language, income and education and projected onto the universe. The results were then weighted to reflect an electorate estimated at 24.3 million voters. A weight variable has been included in the dataset.

    Data Collection

    Dates of Data Collection
    Start End
    1995-09 1995-11
    Data Collectors
    Name
    Market and Opinion Surveys (Pty) Ltd

    Data Access

    Access authority
    Name Affiliation URL Email
    DataFirst University of Cape Town http://www.datafirst.uct.ac.za info@data1st.org
    Access conditions

    Public use files, available to all

    Citation requirements

    Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA). IDASA Local Election Study 1995 [dataset]. Version 1. Cape Town: IDASA [producer], 1995. Cape Town: DataFirst [distributor], 2012. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25828/7c6g-zd73

    Contacts

    Contacts
    Name Affiliation Email URL
    DataFirst Helpdesk University of Cape Town support@data1st.org http://support.data1st.org/

    Metadata production

    DDI Document ID

    ddi-zaf-datafirst-iles-1995-v1

    Producers
    Name Affiliation Role
    DataFirst University of Cape Town Metadata Producer
    Date of Metadata Production

    2020-06-20

    Metadata version

    DDI Document version

    Version 3

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