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During the last 10 years, 2 different approaches to automatic content analysis have been developed. The 1st makes use of a theory about the meaning of words, as formulated in "dictionaries." The best example of such a program is the "General Inquirer." In the 2nd procedure, no assumptions are made about the meaning of the words, but an attempt is made to discover the content of a text by analyzing the co-occurrence of the words. Both procedures have been illustrated with RIQS, a retrieval program, which is available in the Netherlands. RIQS cannot be used for the dictionary procedure, because of the limits of the dictionaries; however RIQS can be used for the other procedures because the files produced by RIQS are written as SPSS-files, so that several types of analysis procedures can be used. Some important developments over the last years are mentioned: "disambiguation," validation of dictionaries, more flexible versions of the General Inquirer, dictionaries for non-English languages, & new computer programs for automatic content analysis. 7 Tables. HA Tr & Modified by I. Verluyten.

Telephone survey data obtained in two waves from 2,000 Dutch voters are used to differentiate three groups of respondents -- those willing to participate in an election survey, those only willing to participate in a short general interview, & nonrespondents -- in relation to various background characteristics (age, education, sex, urbanization) & political interest. Results show large differences, especially with respect to political interest, between groups 1 & 2. Two sets of results are used in combination to estimate the level of political interest among group 3. Comparison of these findings with historical data indicates that political interest among the Dutch population increased in the 1970s & stabilized during the 1980s & 1990s. No evidence was found for a widening of the gulf between the public & politicians. 9 Tables, 2 Figures, 51 References. Adapted from the source document.

To investigate the thesis of C. van der Eijk's & B. Niemoller's Electoral Change in the Netherlands, Empirical Results and Methods of Measurement ([Dissertation], Amsterdam: CT Press, 1983) that the Left-Right dimension is the most important factor in Dutch politics, interview data collected by Dutch Gallup pollsters in 1983 from 341 adults are analyzed using the smallest distance hypothesis developed in A. Downs's An Economic Theory of Democracy (New York: Harper & Row, 1957). Psychophysical scaling methods are applied to determine the precision & reliability of measurements & to bypass the disadvantages incurred when using a single indicator. The results show that for 40% of the respondents, the smallest distance hypothesis could not account for the vote. Thus, a large % of voters choose their party according to other factors than the Left-Right dimension. 6 Tables, 1 Appendix, 28 References. M. Meeks

A coding procedure for the extraction of decision-making procedures from documents is developed. Lacking an automatic procedure, a list of concepts was developed & hand coded. Problems consequently arose concerning reliability. Because research is limited in this specialized field, it seemed advisable to investigate problems of coder reliability before proceeding with the validation of decision theory. Inter- & intracoder reliability were studied. Results of this investigation proved very satisfactory & encourage further research toward development of more automatic procedures. 7 Tables. Modified HA.