The ANES Guide

'How to Use the Guide' Guide main page

EXAMPLE:
Initial Display Table in the ANES Guide:

In the example table below, each column represents a year, with the actual year of the study given in the first row
(for instance, "'64" corresponds to the 1964 ANES). The rows of the table correspond to the response categories
for the question. For example, in 1964, 29% of respondents felt that the government is run by a Few Big Interests;
64% thought that the government is run for the Benefit of All People; and 7% replied Don't Know or Depends.
To examine change in opinion over time, compare the numbers within a row of the table. For example, to see how
opinion has changed on this question, compare the 29% who said Few Big Interests in 1964, to the 33% who said
this in 1966 to the 40% in 1968 ... to the 70% in 1996.

Is the Government Run for the Benefit of All 1964-2004

	'64	'66	'68	'70	'72	'74	'76	'78	'80	'82	'84	'86	'88	'90	'92	'94	'96	'98	'00	'02	'04
Few Big Interests :	29	33	40	50	53	66	66	67	70	61	55	**	64	71	75	76	69	64	61	48	56
Benefit of All :	64	53	51	41	38	25	24	24	21	29	39	**	31	24	20	19	27	32	35	51	40
Don't Know, Depends:	7	13	9	9	9	9	10	9	9	10	6	**	5	5	4	5	3	4	5	2	4
N	1443	1276	1336	1496	2273	2500	2839	2263	1593	1397	1898		1761	1952	2228	1757	1490	1271	1530	1276	1061

PERCENTAGE WITHIN STUDY YEAR
Table 5A.2
Source: The American National Election Studies
Link to the ASCII text version of this table

QUESTION TEXT:

"Would you say the government is pretty much run by a few big
interests looking out for themselves or that it is run for the
benefit of all the people?"

Graph of Response:

Few Big Interests

Benefit of All

Percent among demographic groups who responded: