WP8. Empirical Data Collection (Quantitative and Qualitative Studies)

This WP comprises a quantitative survey and a series (portfolio) of qualitative studies that aims to investigate the deeper mechanisms how citizens make decisions about the trustworthiness and trust to political institutions and what can be the role of institutions and CSOs in strengthening trust.

Within this WP the project team will develop and validate instruments that can assess the context in which people make decisions about trustworthiness, characteristics considered as the main indicators of trustworthiness, individual and country-level factors that influence trust-building. New instruments and collected quantitative and qualitative data will also concern issues of information voting (WP2); the impact of socioeconomic changes (pandemic, digitalization of work, migration) (WP3); societal and political cleavages shaping the European societies (WP5); non-electoral participation through social media (WP6); environments and media use (WP7); policy actions to enhance trust (WPs 9-10).

The set of studies by method includes: (1) online population survey with the split-sample and survey experiment elements; (2) focus group discussions with citizens; (3) expert interviews with policymakers; (4) consultations with CSO leaders. Design of the new research tools and coordination over their implementation will be conducted by ICSR-AT. All individual and group interviews are to be recorded and transcribed, in accordance with the international and national ethical requirements and practices. Summary of all transcripts and quantitative dataset will be produced in English to ensure all project participants in all WPs can benefit from the findings.

WP Leader: Dr. Kseniya Kizilova, ICSR, Austria.

Task 8.1. Online survey.

Online survey in France, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania, and Sweden (N=1500 per country; N=9000 in total) will be fielded by single professional data collection agency (selected through a publicly announced call for tenders) to ensure methodological comparability. General population: adult national and long-term residents of the specified countries in the age of 18 years or older. Respondents will be recruited via an established online panel (random selection) or a probability random selection from the general population method. The key requirements to the sample include nationalwide coverage and representativity (distribution of groups by gender, age, education, income, settlement type) of the country's overall population to ensure the findings can be extended to the society as a whole. The respondents will be informed about the project at the beginning; participation in the survey is volunteer and anonymous. The respondents will be given a possibility to leave their email address in case they are willing to learn more about the survey and project findings, leave their detailed feedback or engage into other research activities within the project. Primary topics to be addressed in the quantitative module: (1) factors affecting perceptions of trustworthiness and deep mechanisms of trustworthiness assessment; (2) patterns of information consumption and media use, including social media and nonelectoral digital forms of political participation. The survey questionnaire will be designed to address also the research aims and objectives of all WPs, covering a broad scope of questions on trust and its predictors, attitudes to democracy and satisfaction with the national governing bodies, among the others.

Task 8.2. Focus group interviews with citizens.

Focus group interviews with citizens: Czechia (3), France (2), Greece (4), Poland (3), Romania (4) (16 FGDs in total). Focus group discussion represents a method of collecting qualitative sociological information (answering the questions "why?" and "how?" rather than "how many/ how much?", as in quantitative studies). FGD involves a relatively small number of participants (6-12) meeting together to address one or several specific issues. The discussion is coordinated by a moderator who poses questions, follows the dynamics of the discussion and adapts the content of main and additional questions, if necessary. FGD allows learning about the particular causal mechanisms behind individual actions and options, but at the same time allows to observe how those opinion might change under the influence of the group.

In TRUEDEM, FGDs will be organized on the country-by-country basis, with both the project beneficiaries or the subcontracted agencies organizing FGDs. TRUEDEM partners are advised on the average FGD size of 8-10 participants.

It is recommended that one FGD is conducted with younger people (18-40 years) and one with middle-aged participants (40-65 years). In countries where 3 or more FGDs are planned, it is recommended that one FGD is conducted with female participants only. The final decision on the demographic composition of the FGD participants shall be decided by the project team together with the Qualitative and Quantitative Study Technical Group. Primary topics to be addressed in FGDs: (1) decision-making about voting, interplay between electoral participation and perceptions of electoral integrity on one side, and political trust and attitudes to democracy on the other; (2) interplay between perceptions of governments’ decision on the ongoing crisis (pandemic, war and migration) and their perceived trustworthiness. FGDs will be conducted in national languages; transcripts will be prepared in national languages; summaries will be produced in English.

Task 8.3. Expert interviews.

Expert interviews with policymakers and politicians: Austria (N=20), Czechia (N=15), France (N=10), Greece (N=15), Italy (N=15), Poland (N=15), Romania (N=15), Slovakia (N=15), Slovenia (N=20), Sweden (N=15) (155 expert interviews with policymakers and politicians in total). Expert interview is another qualitative method of data collection with the objective of gathering information about a particular issue or a field. Participants of expert interviews - respondents- are identified as experts meaning they have a broad and deep understanding, competence and skills on the studied subject. Experts will be invited to comment on the issues of public trust and the role of trust for the country's governance, the quality of governance and the efficiency of political institutions. Other topics to be addressed in the set of expert interviews include: (1) societal and political cleavages shaping the European societies; (2) new democratic innovations and policy actions to enhance trust; (3) political communication and its role in forming the perceptions of trustworthiness and trust-building. In all involved countries, experts shall include representatives of the local and national government bodies (local/ municipal councils, national government, national parliament) as well as members of the groups within the governing political party(s), government or any established special groups, commissions who are directly involved into the design of new / amendment of existing public policies. Gender balance between male and female experts shall be met in every country. While the exact composition of the group of experts in every country might be somewhat diverse, it is recommended that at least 1-2 experts are interviewed who specialize in political communications and public relations. Expert interviews shall be conducted in the national language; transcripts shall be produced in national language; summaries shall be prepared in English.

Task 8.4. Consultations with CSO leaders.

Consultations with CSO leaders: Austria (N=20), Czechia (N=15), France (N=10), Greece (N=15), Italy (N=15), Poland (N=15), Romania (N=15), Slovakia (N=15), Slovenia (N=20), Sweden (N=15) (155 expert interviews with policymakers and politicians in total). CSOs can provide local knowledge and expertise that is vital to the policy process and that gives voice to the opinion of citizens, including underprivileged and underrepresented groups. Experience of other projects in various domain has proven that consultations with CSO contribute to the improvement of policy-making and promotion of public-sector transparency and accountability. Consultation can generally be defined as a process through which the subjects or issues of interest are discussed within or across constituency groups. The aims of consultations with CSOs in TRUEDEM include: to tap the knowledge of CSOs that work at the level of communities; to capture the experience of specialized civil society organizations and other similar groups to improve the quality of policies and decision-making; to promote sustainability of the proposed new policy measures; to give voice to the poor and excluded social groups; to set foundations for broad participation to ensure implementation of the new policy measures. Topics to be addressed in the set of expert interviews and consultations with CSOs, politicians and policymakers: (1) societal and political cleavages shaping the European societies; (2) shaping new democratic innovations and policy actions to enhance trust; (3) political communication and its role in forming the perceptions of trustworthiness and trust-building. Consultations will involve both operational and advocacy CSO, including community-based organizations, development NGOs, people's organizations, and social movements. In terms of the level of activity, both local, national and regions/EU level CSOs will be included in consultations. The exact group of CSOs per country will vary depending on the country's specifics and peculiarities of political development.