The ANES Guide to Public Opinion and Electoral Behavior
Politics is Too Complicated 1952-2012
| '52 | '54 | '56 | '58 | '60 | '62 | '64 | '66 | '68 | '70 | '72 | '74 | '76 | '78 | '80 | '82 | '84 | '86 | '88 | '90 | '92 | '94 | '96 | '98 | '00 | '02 | '04 | '08 | '12 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agree | 71 (1258) |
** | 64 (1107) |
** | 59 (1113) |
** | 67 (1044) |
69 (892) |
71 (952) |
73 (1101) |
74 (1982) |
72 (1806) |
71 (1710) |
72 (1647) |
70 (983) |
** | 71 (1580) |
** | 70 (1239) |
66 (1293) |
66 (1472) |
65 (1155) |
63 (942) |
73 (928) |
60 (928) |
** | ** | 68 (711) |
56 (1647) |
| Disagree | 28 (506) |
** | 36 (627) |
** | 41 (781) |
** | 32 (493) |
27 (343) |
29 (384) |
26 (390) |
26 (699) |
26 (657) |
27 (641) |
26 (604) |
28 (393) |
** | 29 (650) |
** | 21 (376) |
24 (471) |
27 (606) |
25 (446) |
28 (413) |
20 (252) |
32 (499) |
** | ** | 20 (211) |
29 (850) |
| Neither | - | ** | - | ** | - | ** | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ** | - | ** | 8 (146) |
10 (189) |
7 (162) |
9 (161) |
10 (145) |
7 (93) |
7 (112) |
** | ** | 11 (119) |
16 (467) |
| Don't Know, Depends | 1 (15) |
** | 0 (8) |
** | 0 (6) |
** | 1 (21) |
4 (54) |
0 (5) |
1 (11) |
0 (13) |
1 (37) |
2 (41) |
2 (37) |
2 (28) |
** | 0 (9) |
** | 0 (4) |
1 (10) |
0 (7) |
0 (7) |
0 (1) |
0 (5) |
0 (2) |
** | ** | 0 (2) |
0 (1) |
| N | 1779 | 0 | 1742 | 0 | 1900 | 0 | 1558 | 1289 | 1341 | 1502 | 2694 | 2500 | 2392 | 2288 | 1404 | 0 | 2239 | 0 | 1765 | 1963 | 2247 | 1769 | 1501 | 1278 | 1541 | 0 | 0 | 1043 | 2965 |
Percentage Within Study Year
Table 5B.1.
Question Text:
"'Sometimes politics and government seem so complicated that a person like me can't really understand what's going on.'"
Note:
The option 'Neither Agree Nor Disagree' was introduced in 1988 and has affected distributions.
2012 data are for the combined (face-to-face and internet) sample.
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