This article aims to retrospectively investigate the embeddedness of attitudes toward immigrants ... more This article aims to retrospectively investigate the embeddedness of attitudes toward immigrants (ATI) in cultures of solidarity seen as general orientations toward solidarity measured at a country level. We predict individual-level ATI with country-level aggregated indicators of solidarity that were observed decades earlier. The latter measure local, social, and global solidarity and are explained by a general, overall orientation toward solidarity. For computing the indicators, we combine aggregate data from the European Values Study (EVS) 1999 and 2008 and individual-level data from the spring 2015 Eurobarometer to show that the effect of country-level solidarity on individual-level ATI is strong and stable. The findings reveal that cultures of solidarity have a long-term effect and are the strongest contextual determinant for individual-level ATI. Both 1999 and 2008 data proved to be related to 2015 individual-level attitudes, having a positive effect. In particular, local solid...
Intelligence assessment is one of the traditional fields in individual differences. When it is re... more Intelligence assessment is one of the traditional fields in individual differences. When it is realized based on scientific methods, its results are useful. Raven Progressive Matrices resisted in time as an intelligence assessment tool and it fully demonstrated its utility. Based on Spearman theory of intelligence RPM were validated on many cultures. The present paper presents the Romanian adaptation of RPM, standard form, the sample construction, and the norms built on a representative sample of the Romanian population; the paper also discusses some exploratory results based on the relation between intelligence, socioeconomic and demographical variables. We used as test Standard Raven Progressive Matrices. The study includes 3,000 subjects, aged between 6 and 80, from all Romanian counties.
Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai Sociologia, 2015
According to official data, Romanian voter turnout decreased by half for the period 1990-2012. Ga... more According to official data, Romanian voter turnout decreased by half for the period 1990-2012. Gaps between official and self-reported turnout are larger than those from similar countries. Starting with these findings, this paper questions the official data regarding turnout and brings evidence that turnout in Romanian elections is increasingly underestimated. Three factors are responsible for this: the quality of the electoral registers, ineligible voters and emigration. The effect of these factors grew over time inducing the idea that turnout is sharply decreasing. In fact, the decrease is less pronounced, and most of it took place between 1990 and 2000. In the last part, I discuss the implications of the findings in three domains: theoretical debates, methodological and practical issues.
Resilience, exposure and transferability are the most common explanations of immigrant political ... more Resilience, exposure and transferability are the most common explanations of immigrant political mobilisation in the context of the host society. They are based on assumptions about socialisation and institutionalisation, which are common to native-born groups as well. They lead to hypotheses about the impact of ‘cultures of voting turnout.’ This paper tests these hypotheses through cross-classified multilevel logistic regression analysis of immigrants' voting intentions. The method is new to the analysis of voting behaviour, and allows the comparison of immigrants of multiple origin groups in multiple host countries. This paper provides support for exposure effects: living in a society where most people cast ballots in national elections increases the odds that immigrants are willing to vote. Transferability is not evident, as coming from a culture of high turnout actually lowers the probability of voting. Such impact is not mediated by the length of stay or by the political opportunity structure specific to immigrants, but is stronger in systems of compulsory voting.
Das Modul wurde als Nachwahl-Befragung durchgeführt. Die daraus resultierenden Daten werden mit D... more Das Modul wurde als Nachwahl-Befragung durchgeführt. Die daraus resultierenden Daten werden mit Daten über das Abstimmungsverhalten, demographischen Daten, und Variablen auf Wahlkreis- und Länderebene in einem einzelnen Datensatz bereitgestellt. CSES Variable List Eine Liste aller Variablen wird auf der Webseite des CSES bereitgestellt. Sie verdeutlicht, welche Inhalte über das CSES verfügbar sind und erlaubt es die Inhalte über verschiedene Module des CSES zu vergleichen. Themen: INDIVIDUALDATEN: Technische Variablen: Gewichtungsvariablen; Art der Wahl; Datum der Wahl 1. und 2. Wahlgang; Zeitpunkt der Studie (Nachwahlbefragung, Vorwahlbefragung und Nachwahlbefragung, Zwischen Wahlgängen in Mehrheitswahlsystemen); Erhebungsmodus; Geschlecht des Interviewers; Datum der Datenerhebung; Wahlkreis des Befragten; Anzahl der Tage zwischen Wahltag und Interview. Demographie: Alter; Geschlecht; Bildung; Familienstand; Gewerkschaftsmitgliedschaft; Gewerkschaftsmitgliedschaft anderer Haushalts...
Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai Sociologia, 2017
Turnout decline in former communist countries has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention. ... more Turnout decline in former communist countries has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention. In this paper, I re-test some of the previous hypotheses on new data and I propose a new hypothesis that considers the impact of external migration. Using multivariate regression models on a dataset of 272 presidential and parliamentary elections held in 30 post-communist countries between 1989 and 2012, I have found strong support for the “migration hypothesis”: other things being equal, an increase of migration rate by 1 percentage point reduces voter turnout by around 0.4 percentage points. Most of the previous hypotheses related to causes of turnout decline are supported too.
Revista Inovația Socială este o revistă online creată în cadrul proiectului Inovația Socială-Fac... more Revista Inovația Socială este o revistă online creată în cadrul proiectului Inovația Socială-Factor al dezvoltării socio-economice", proiect coordonat de Prof. dr. Cătălin Zamfir în cadrul Institutului de Cercetare a Calității Vieții. Această revistă utilizează politica liberului ...
Page 1. Sociologie Românească, 3-4/ 2002, p. 1-32 O ANALIZĂ A RATEI DE RĂSPUNS ÎN ANCHETELE DE OP... more Page 1. Sociologie Românească, 3-4/ 2002, p. 1-32 O ANALIZĂ A RATEI DE RĂSPUNS ÎN ANCHETELE DE OPINIE NAŢIONALE Mircea Comşa - Catedra de Sociologie, Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai Analiza de faţă se înscrie ...
This article aims to retrospectively investigate the embeddedness of attitudes toward immigrants ... more This article aims to retrospectively investigate the embeddedness of attitudes toward immigrants (ATI) in cultures of solidarity seen as general orientations toward solidarity measured at a country level. We predict individual-level ATI with country-level aggregated indicators of solidarity that were observed decades earlier. The latter measure local, social, and global solidarity and are explained by a general, overall orientation toward solidarity. For computing the indicators, we combine aggregate data from the European Values Study (EVS) 1999 and 2008 and individual-level data from the spring 2015 Eurobarometer to show that the effect of country-level solidarity on individual-level ATI is strong and stable. The findings reveal that cultures of solidarity have a long-term effect and are the strongest contextual determinant for individual-level ATI. Both 1999 and 2008 data proved to be related to 2015 individual-level attitudes, having a positive effect. In particular, local solid...
Intelligence assessment is one of the traditional fields in individual differences. When it is re... more Intelligence assessment is one of the traditional fields in individual differences. When it is realized based on scientific methods, its results are useful. Raven Progressive Matrices resisted in time as an intelligence assessment tool and it fully demonstrated its utility. Based on Spearman theory of intelligence RPM were validated on many cultures. The present paper presents the Romanian adaptation of RPM, standard form, the sample construction, and the norms built on a representative sample of the Romanian population; the paper also discusses some exploratory results based on the relation between intelligence, socioeconomic and demographical variables. We used as test Standard Raven Progressive Matrices. The study includes 3,000 subjects, aged between 6 and 80, from all Romanian counties.
Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai Sociologia, 2015
According to official data, Romanian voter turnout decreased by half for the period 1990-2012. Ga... more According to official data, Romanian voter turnout decreased by half for the period 1990-2012. Gaps between official and self-reported turnout are larger than those from similar countries. Starting with these findings, this paper questions the official data regarding turnout and brings evidence that turnout in Romanian elections is increasingly underestimated. Three factors are responsible for this: the quality of the electoral registers, ineligible voters and emigration. The effect of these factors grew over time inducing the idea that turnout is sharply decreasing. In fact, the decrease is less pronounced, and most of it took place between 1990 and 2000. In the last part, I discuss the implications of the findings in three domains: theoretical debates, methodological and practical issues.
Resilience, exposure and transferability are the most common explanations of immigrant political ... more Resilience, exposure and transferability are the most common explanations of immigrant political mobilisation in the context of the host society. They are based on assumptions about socialisation and institutionalisation, which are common to native-born groups as well. They lead to hypotheses about the impact of ‘cultures of voting turnout.’ This paper tests these hypotheses through cross-classified multilevel logistic regression analysis of immigrants' voting intentions. The method is new to the analysis of voting behaviour, and allows the comparison of immigrants of multiple origin groups in multiple host countries. This paper provides support for exposure effects: living in a society where most people cast ballots in national elections increases the odds that immigrants are willing to vote. Transferability is not evident, as coming from a culture of high turnout actually lowers the probability of voting. Such impact is not mediated by the length of stay or by the political opportunity structure specific to immigrants, but is stronger in systems of compulsory voting.
Das Modul wurde als Nachwahl-Befragung durchgeführt. Die daraus resultierenden Daten werden mit D... more Das Modul wurde als Nachwahl-Befragung durchgeführt. Die daraus resultierenden Daten werden mit Daten über das Abstimmungsverhalten, demographischen Daten, und Variablen auf Wahlkreis- und Länderebene in einem einzelnen Datensatz bereitgestellt. CSES Variable List Eine Liste aller Variablen wird auf der Webseite des CSES bereitgestellt. Sie verdeutlicht, welche Inhalte über das CSES verfügbar sind und erlaubt es die Inhalte über verschiedene Module des CSES zu vergleichen. Themen: INDIVIDUALDATEN: Technische Variablen: Gewichtungsvariablen; Art der Wahl; Datum der Wahl 1. und 2. Wahlgang; Zeitpunkt der Studie (Nachwahlbefragung, Vorwahlbefragung und Nachwahlbefragung, Zwischen Wahlgängen in Mehrheitswahlsystemen); Erhebungsmodus; Geschlecht des Interviewers; Datum der Datenerhebung; Wahlkreis des Befragten; Anzahl der Tage zwischen Wahltag und Interview. Demographie: Alter; Geschlecht; Bildung; Familienstand; Gewerkschaftsmitgliedschaft; Gewerkschaftsmitgliedschaft anderer Haushalts...
Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai Sociologia, 2017
Turnout decline in former communist countries has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention. ... more Turnout decline in former communist countries has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention. In this paper, I re-test some of the previous hypotheses on new data and I propose a new hypothesis that considers the impact of external migration. Using multivariate regression models on a dataset of 272 presidential and parliamentary elections held in 30 post-communist countries between 1989 and 2012, I have found strong support for the “migration hypothesis”: other things being equal, an increase of migration rate by 1 percentage point reduces voter turnout by around 0.4 percentage points. Most of the previous hypotheses related to causes of turnout decline are supported too.
Revista Inovația Socială este o revistă online creată în cadrul proiectului Inovația Socială-Fac... more Revista Inovația Socială este o revistă online creată în cadrul proiectului Inovația Socială-Factor al dezvoltării socio-economice", proiect coordonat de Prof. dr. Cătălin Zamfir în cadrul Institutului de Cercetare a Calității Vieții. Această revistă utilizează politica liberului ...
Page 1. Sociologie Românească, 3-4/ 2002, p. 1-32 O ANALIZĂ A RATEI DE RĂSPUNS ÎN ANCHETELE DE OP... more Page 1. Sociologie Românească, 3-4/ 2002, p. 1-32 O ANALIZĂ A RATEI DE RĂSPUNS ÎN ANCHETELE DE OPINIE NAŢIONALE Mircea Comşa - Catedra de Sociologie, Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai Analiza de faţă se înscrie ...
Comșa, Mircea, Rughiniș, Cosima, and Claudiu D. Tufiș. 2008. Atitudini față de muncă în România: Opinii, realități, așteptări., 2008
The volume analyzes the attitudes and opinions of Romanians with respect to working, jobs, and th... more The volume analyzes the attitudes and opinions of Romanians with respect to working, jobs, and the job market based on survey data collected in 2008.
Bădescu, Gabriel et al. 2010. Implicarea civică și politică a tinerilor., 2010
The volume analyzes topics related to political participation among Romanian teenagers, using sur... more The volume analyzes topics related to political participation among Romanian teenagers, using survey data collected from more than 5800 high-school students. It includes studies by Gabriel Bădescu, Mircea Comșa, Andrei Gheorghiță, Cristina Stănuș, and Claudiu Tufiș
Mircea Comșa, Andrei Gheorghiță, and Claudiu D. Tufiș (eds.). 2012. Alegerile prezidențiale din România, 2009. Cluj-Napoca: Presa Universitară Clujeană.
Comșa, Mircea, Gheorghiță, Andrei, and Claudiu Tufiș (eds.). 2010. Alegerile pentru Parlamentul European: România 2009. Iași: Polirom., 2010
The first volume analyzing the 2009 elections for the European Parliament in Romania. The volume ... more The first volume analyzing the 2009 elections for the European Parliament in Romania. The volume includes chapters by Cristina Stănuș, Florin Feșnic, Adrian Sebastian Popa and Paul Thomas Weith, Paul E.Sum, and the three editors.
When asked in surveys about their voting record, many respondents tend to report having gone to t... more When asked in surveys about their voting record, many respondents tend to report having gone to the polls, although they have not. The consequence is a large and significant turnout overreporting, with negative consequences upon the validity of many investigations in the field of voting behaviour. An individual’s tendency to exaggerate his/her voting record is usually the combined effect of several factors: social desirability bias, limitations of human memory, and acquiescence response bias. This article assesses the effectiveness of counter-biasing techniques in compensating for the social desirability bias and, consequently, reducing self-reported turnout. It compares the effects of three alternatives of ‘loaded’ turnout questions, providing variable information on the occurrence of non-voting behaviour (many people/around half of the people/one out of two people did not vote) and invariant face-saving response options. Self-reported turnout is compared against externally validated turnout. We employ a split-ballot survey experiment included in the 2009 Romanian Presidential Election panel study. Our analyses show that the ‘half’ counter-biasing formula is systematically more effective in reducing the social desirability bias than the alternatives, which perform rather similarly. When compared to validated turnout, it appears that, after applying the counter-biasing techniques, turnout overreporting due to social desirability remains at 5.7 to 8.6 percent.
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