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The left-right concept is considered to facilitate communication and orientation in the political world. It has a long tradition in European politics due to its capacity to absorb different associations over time. However, this dynamic nature of the concept requires periodical reassessments in order to assure that a common conceptualisation endures. This dissertation focuses on reassign what individual left-right orientation means. Usually, this is measured by asking people to place themselves on a scale labelled 'left' and 'right' at its endpoints. The first empirical analysis of this dissertation shows that this measure is comparable across groups and countries. Thereafter, the relationship between an individual's issue preference and left-right orientation is considered. The second empirical analysis shows that this relationship is conditioned by the importance people assign to the respective issues. The final analysis demonstrates that what explains left-right orientation is contingent on individual and contextual factors. This implies that in order to understand left-right orientation, it is not enough to identify what has an impact on a person's position but also account for all those factors that predict variation between individuals. Given this complexity, my conclusion is that the left-right concept runs the risk of becoming too complicated to serve as an analytical tool to shed light on political attitudes and behaviour. ; El concepte esquerra-dreta és considerat com un factor facilitador de la comunicació en el món polític. Té una llarga tradició' en la política europea degut a la seva capacitat d'absorbir diferents associacions a través del temps. Tanmateix, aquesta natura dinàmica del concepte requereix revisions periòdiques per assegurar que persisteix una conceptualització comuna. La present tesi es centra en resignar el que significa l'orientació esquerra-dreta. Normalment, es mesura tot demanant als enquestats posicionar-se a ells mateixos en una escala que va de l'esquerra a la dreta. El primer ...

Subjective variables such as opinions, attitudes or preferences cannot be measured directly. Researchers have to rely on the answers people give in surveys, and whenever those answers shall be compared it is required that people answer these questions in the same way. Only then a concept can be used in different contexts. This paper deals with the measurement of the left-right concept: it analyses whether people make a distinction between a scale labelled 0 left and 10 right to one which is labelled 0 extreme left and 10 extreme right and tests whether the instrument is equivalent across groups. Following the three steps of invariance testing, configural, metric and scalar invariance, we find that the left-right response scale is on average equivalent across groups with different levels of political interest and different levels of education. This finding holds also in 23 of the 25 European countries tested, with the exception of the eastern part of Germany, Finland and France. In order to estimate how serious the difference between these two groups of countries is, we compare the observed means (which are affected by the difference) to the latent means (which are free of those effects), and the effect of the observed variable "attitude towards government's intervention in the economy" on the observed variable "left-right self-placement" with the effect between these variables after correcting for scale difference. It was found that countries' means can be compared but that the relationship with other variables might not be comparable among East Germany, Finland, France and the remaining countries.

"Subjective variables such as opinions, attitudes or preferences cannot be measured directly. Researchers have to rely on the answers people give in surveys, and whenever those answers shall be compared it is required that people answer these questions in the same way. Only then a concept can be used in different contexts. This paper deals with the measurement of the left-right concept: it analyzes whether people make a distinction between a scale labeled 0 left and 10 right to one which is labeled 0 extreme left and 10 extreme right and tests whether the instrument is equivalent across groups. Following the three steps of invariance testing, configural, metric and scalar invariance, the authoress finds that the left-right response scale is on average equivalent across groups with different levels of political interest and different levels of education. This finding holds also in 23 of the 25 European countries tested, with the exception of the eastern part of Germany, Finland and France. In order to estimate how serious the difference between these two groups of countries is, she compares the observed means (which are affected by the difference) to the latent means (which are free of those effects), and the effect of the observed variable 'attitude towards government's intervention in the economy' on the observed variable 'left-right self-placement' with the effect between these variables after correcting for scale difference. It was found that countries' means can be compared but that the relationship with other variables might not be comparable among East Germany, Finland, France and the remaining countries." (author's abstract)

Subjective variables such as opinions, attitudes or preferences cannot be measured directly. Researchers have to rely on the answers people give in surveys, and whenever those answers shall be compared it is required that people answer these questions in the same way. Only then a concept can be used in different contexts. This paper deals with the measurement of the left-right concept: it analyses whether people make a distinction between a scale labelled 0 left and 10 right to one which is labelled 0 extreme left and 10 extreme right and tests whether the instrument is equivalent across groups. Following the three steps of invariance testing, configural, metric and scalar invariance, we find that the left-right response scale is on average equivalent across groups with different levels of political interest and different levels of education. This finding holds also in 23 of the 25 European countries tested, with the exception of the eastern part of Germany, Finland and France. In order to estimate how serious the difference between these two groups of countries is, we compare the observed means (which are affected by the difference) to the latent means (which are free of those effects), and the effect of the observed variable "attitude towards government's intervention in the economy" on the observed variable "left-right self-placement" with the effect between these variables after correcting for scale difference. It was found that countries' means can be compared but that the relationship with other variables might not be comparable among East Germany, Finland, France and the remaining countries.

Auf Basis einer Umfrage unter IBM Mitarbeitern in den 1970er Jahren konzipierte Geerd Hofstede ein Modell, das darauf abzielt, nationale Kulturen anhand von vier, mittlerweile sechs Kulturdimensionen zu vergleichen. Dieses Modell hat extreme Reaktionen in beide Richtungen hervorgerufen: Während einige Forscher ihm einen paradigmatischen Stellenwert zuschreiben, wird es von anderen scharf kritisiert. Einer der hauptsächlichen Kritikpunkte betrifft die Validität der Kulturdimensionen. Die vorliegende Studie liefert einen empirischen Beitrag zur vorwiegend theoretischen Diskussion und führt Validitätstests an einer der Dimensionen, namentlich Unsicherheitsvermeidung, durch. Unter der Anwendung von Daten aus Frankreich und Deutschland (2011) bestätigt sich diese Dimension nicht als valides Konstrukt.

Mixed-mode surveys allow researchers to combine the advantages of multiple modes, for example, the low cost of the web mode with the higher coverage of offline modes. One drawback of combining modes is that there might be systematic differences in measurement across modes. Thus, it would be useful to know which measurement methods work best in all employed modes. This study sets out to find a method that results in the highest measurement quality across self-administered web mode questionnaires (web mode) and self-administered paper questionnaires sent out by mail (mail mode). Two Multitrait-Multimethod (MTMM) experiments employing questions on environmental attitudes and supernatural beliefs were implemented in the GESIS Panel, a probability-based panel in Germany. The experiments were designed to estimate the measurement quality of three different response scales: A seven-point fully labelled scale, a 101-point numerical openended scale and an eleven-point partially labelled scale. Our results show that the elevenpoint partially labelled scale consistently leads to the highest measurement quality across both modes. We thus recommend using eleven-point partially labelled scales when measuring attitudes or beliefs in mixed-mode surveys combining web and mail mode.

Survey data is used in many social science studies. The measurement quality of these data is crucial as it determines the accuracy of the information on which these studies are based. Besides, since these studies are used to provide insights to key political and social actors, it also determines the accuracy of the information on which crucial decisions are based. In this paper, we estimated the measurement quality (proportion of the variance of the observed survey responses explained by the latent trait of interest) of 67 common social sciences questions that were part of Multitrait-Multimethod experiments in the seven first rounds of the European Social Survey. These questions were asked using response scales with different characteristics and in up to 41 country-language groups. Our results show that measurement errors are omnipresent: the average measurement quality across all questions is 0.65. Thus, overall, on average 35% of the variance in the observed survey answers can be attributed to measurement errors. Furthermore, the size of errors varies across questions as well as across country-language groups. The questions' average measurement quality across all country-language groups ranges from 0.25 to 0.88, depending on the response scale and topic, and the country-language groups' average measurement quality across questions ranges from 0.52 to 0.76. Thus, the impact of measurement errors on applied research can be different depending on the exact question formulation and response scale used as well as on the country and language of interest. Consequently, in each study, researchers should consider assessing the size of the measurement errors of their variables and how this affects their results.