Asian Barometer Survey

Asian Barometer Survey
Name	Asian Barometer Survey
Abbreviation	ABS
Established	2001
Scope	Comparative public opinion research in Asia
Headquarters	Taipei

Asian Barometer Survey

The Asian Barometer Survey is a cross-national public opinion research project that measures political attitudes, social values, and political culture across East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and parts of Central Asia. Founded by scholars and institutions with links to Academia Sinica, National Taiwan University, University of Michigan, University of Hong Kong, and Seoul National University, the project conducts large-scale probability surveys to compare citizens' views on democracy, trust, identity, and governance. The project has involved collaborations with organizations such as the World Values Survey, Latinobarómetro, Pew Research Center, International IDEA, and the Asian Development Bank.

Overview

The project compiles harmonized survey data across jurisdictions including China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan. Its questionnaires cover items on democratic support, satisfaction with performance of political institutions such as the National People's Congress and Legislative Yuan, interpersonal and political trust related to actors like President Ma Ying-jeou or Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and attitudes toward phenomena including Taiwan independence, Hong Kong protests, and regional integration initiatives like ASEAN. Major institutional partners have included City University of Hong Kong, University of the Philippines Diliman, Chulalongkorn University, Monash University, and Peking University.

History and Development

Origins trace to comparative work by scholars affiliated with Academia Sinica and the University of Michigan after the 1990s democratic transitions in places such as South Korea and Philippines. Early rounds in 2003–2004 expanded to include post-communist and transitional polities like Mongolia and Vietnam. Subsequent panels aligned sampling and instruments with global projects such as the World Values Survey and networks including the International Social Survey Programme; major funding and advisory ties involved entities like the Ford Foundation, Japan Foundation, and European Commission. The survey advanced through multiple waves—commonly referred to as rounds—that corresponded with regional political events including the Asian financial crisis, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, and the Arab Spring spillover effects on regional civil society networks.

Methodology

ABS employs probability-based sampling designs—often multistage stratified cluster sampling—implemented by national research teams such as Institute of Statistical Science (Taiwan), Social Weather Stations (Philippines), and National Sample Survey Office (India). Interviews have used face-to-face household surveys, computer-assisted personal interviewing modalities, and pilot mixed-mode experiments influenced by standards from the American Association for Public Opinion Research and the European Social Survey. Questionnaire modules include battery items on latent constructs like democratic values, institutional trust, social capital, and political participation; psychometric validation methods reference techniques used in work by Ronald Inglehart, Pippa Norris, and Robert Putnam. Weighting and post-stratification align with national census frames such as those from National Bureau of Statistics of China and Department of Statistics Malaysia.

Key Findings and Themes

Analyses reveal varied support for procedural democracy alongside differentiated satisfaction with performance in jurisdictions such as Japan versus Thailand; publics display combinations of democratic aspirations and authoritarian resilience observed in studies of China and Singapore. Patterns of political trust link to corruption perceptions in cases involving Malaysia and Indonesia and to conflict legacies in Sri Lanka and Nepal. Identity items surface cross-cutting cleavages between ethnic majorities and minorities in states like Myanmar and Kazakhstan and between generational cohorts in South Korea and Taiwan. Research outputs have explored elites and mass attitudes in episodes including the Sunflower Movement, the Umbrella Movement, and electoral shifts such as the rise of candidates like Aung San Suu Kyi and Rodrigo Duterte.

Data Access and Publications

Survey data, codebooks, and questionnaires have been distributed to researchers through institutional portals run by Academia Sinica and partner universities; major publications appear in journals such as Journal of Democracy, Comparative Political Studies, Asian Survey, Electoral Studies, and World Politics. Edited volumes feature contributors from institutions including London School of Economics, Columbia University, Harvard University, and Australian National University. The project issues country reports, comparative briefs, and topical working papers addressing issues from corruption and governance to social trust and migration studies involving diasporas from Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Impact and Influence

Policymakers, non-governmental organizations, and international agencies such as United Nations Development Programme, World Bank, and Asian Development Bank have used ABS findings to inform program design and evaluation. The dataset has become a reference point in academic debates on democratic consolidation, authoritarian persistence, and political culture across Asia, cited alongside landmark comparative projects like the European Values Study and Latinobarómetro. ABS-supported analyses have informed media coverage in outlets reporting on elections in India, Indonesia, and Philippines and have been used by election monitors such as Election Commission of India and civic groups in South Korea.

Criticisms and Limitations

Scholars have raised concerns about measurement equivalence across linguistically diverse settings including scripts used in China, Japan, and Pakistan, interviewer effects in repressive contexts like Vietnam and China, and sample coverage limitations in fragile areas such as Afghanistan and conflict-affected regions of Myanmar. Debates also address potential bias from social desirability in questions about sensitive topics like nationalism related to Tibet and Xinjiang, the temporal spacing of waves relative to events like the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and challenges in harmonizing item batteries compared with projects like the World Values Survey. Methodological discussions continue about improving longitudinal harmonization and inclusion of marginalized populations studied by entities such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Category:Public opinion research in Asia