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.

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Question Text:

"'Sometimes politics and government seem so complicated that a person like me can't really understand what's going on.'"

Percent among demographic groups who responded:

Agree
Disagree
Neither

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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