Survey On Democracy From Election

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28447, 29 November 1957, Page 20

Survey On Democracy From Election

•‘The Press” Special Service

WELLINGTON, Nov. 28. How does democracy work in New Zealand? That is a question that the department of political science at Victoria University hopes partially to answer with a survey of the present general election. A similar survey was done in 1949, but this time, with the cooperation of the general public and specially those in the Wellington Central electorate, Professor R. S. Milne and his team of interviewers hope to obtain more information on the factors that influence voters in a democracy. Surveys of this nature are now common in Britain and the United States. To ensure that voting is not influenced in any way the check is to be made the week following the election. It will be essentially academic and nonparty.

Already a brief history of the electorate, its boundary changes and population movement has been compiled by Mr Ralph Brooks, a senior lecturer in the department, as preparation for the survey.

Beginning on Monday, December 2, a group of students will interview about 500 people selected at random. They will carry questionnaires containing such queries as what those inter-

viewed thought were the main election issues and what they think about the contesting parties. Once the questionnaires Are returned a group at the university under the direction of Professor Milne will begin to _ codify the answers under such headings as age, election material heard or read or meetings attended by those questioned. A great deal of work will be involved in collating this material but it is hoped to finish by June and to have the results published in the September, 1958, issue of “Political . Science” and in the newspapers.

After much discussion the Wellington Central electorate was decided on because it was felt that it was probably typical of municipal electorates in New Zealand and that the results obtained there would be a good indication of New Zealand patterns. Finance for the project has come from the Carnegie Social Science Research Fund, which takes a special interest in work of this kind. A couple was arrested in Lima, Ohio, for creating a fuss when a service station attendant refused to sell them one cent’s worth of gas.