This book analyses data from a range of different studies. The main ones include:

The New Zealand Election Study (NZES), a survey monitoring the democratic process in New Zealand. Since 1990, over 2000 respondents take part in each three-yearly nationwide survey. Data (including panel data in many years) are primarily collected using questionnaires which are posted to randomly-selected registered electors immediately following each election. In some years (1999 and 2002) telephone interviews were used addition to mailed questionnaires; in 2005 and 2011, some respondents completed the survey online. Given that New Zealand has compulsory voter registration, the sample is reasonably representative of the general population but oversampling has been undertaken for Māori every year since 1996 and young people in 2011. For more details about specific surveys: http://www.nzes.org/

The New Zealand Values Study (NZVS) is a nationwide, representative survey conducted as part of the World Values Survey programme which aims to capture the political and social attitudes and values of different populations. The New Zealand surveys have not been identical in format or methodology but systematically draw a sample from the electoral roll. This book utilises data from 1989 (N=1000, face-to-face interviews), 1993 (N=1272, postal questionnaire replicated in the International Social Survey Programme), 1998 (N=1201, postal questionnaire) and 2004 (N=954, postal questionnaire). A telephone survey was also conducted in 2004 (see Rose et al, 2005) but because this methodology is less comparable with the previous surveys, this book largely relies on unweighted, unpublished data from the postal survey kindly provided by Paul Perry. Note that the data was relatively representative in each year but over-sampling for Maori and selected low average household income meshblocks was conducted in 1998. More information about the World Values Survey is found at: http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/

The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) involves an annual survey of selected economic and social policy issues across 40 countries. The same questionnaire is used in every country but different modules are chosen each year in roughly seven year cycle. In New Zealand, this administered through a nationwide postal survey drawing from the electoral roll. This book draws upon the ‘Role of Government’ module in 1997 (N=1206) and 2006 (N=1200) and the ‘Social Inequality in New Zealand’ module in 1999 (N=1118) and 2009 (N=935).