The “Public Opinion” POSTGEN Component

A dedicated “Public Opinion” POSTGEN work package will use public opinion surveys to collect information about political attitudes and behaviour in representative samples of the Italian voting-age population. Following the ICCP scheme, this WP will gather standardized, issue-rich (approx. 30 issues), quantitative-oriented information about intergenerational differences in the structure of both the party and attitude space.

The sample strategy will cover the Italian population aged 18 or older, with an oversampling of respondents aged 18-34 (overall N=4000 approx.). Data will be collected through a survey with a panel design, including two waves, taking place in proximity of general and European elections (in 2022 and 2024), so as to explore the relevance of major national and international political events in attitude formation.

The panel will feature CAWI (Computer Assisted Web Interviewing) interviews, ensuring efficiency and flexibility, and allowing the adoption of survey experiments for item validation. Issue selection will be synchronized across the CAWI and the social media component to allow cross-dataset analysis of issue opportunities and party strategy. We also plan to contextualize generational differences in a longer-term context using data from past surveys on Italy (ITANES, World Value Survey, European Values Study).

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