[lbo-talk] Pollitt on Dean

Cliff Staples clifford_staples at und.nodak.edu
Thu Aug 28 12:18:42 PDT 2003



>Bullshit or not, I would take it with a grain of salt. What surprises
>me the most in these results is very little differences between major
>socio-demographic groups (e.g. Male - Female, Occupations, or age). The
>same percent of men and women, young and old, wanting an Islamic
>republic? Something is fishy here.
>
>Another caveat is the methods how the survey was administered. I find
>it hard to believe that the interviewers were freely roaming through the
>streets of Baghdad, asking people questions. A more likely scenario is
>that the interviewers were somehow 'embedded.' Now how likely is it
>that a person in an occupied country asked by an interviewer accompanied
>by the occupying army soldiers would say that he/she does not like the
>occupying army? Or perhaps there was a variation in how the survey was
>administered (i.e. some interviewers were embedded while others were
>not) -which if true may help explaining the remarkably small differences
>between socio-demographic groups - those asked by 'embedded'
>interviewers (men and women alike) gave 'safe' responses, while those
>asked by not embedded ones spoke up their minds.
>
>In any case, it is hard to tell without knowing the details. I am thus
>not dismissing these results, but I remain skeptical.
>
>Wojtek

No need to justify skepticism.. when in comes to "surveys" and other knowledge claims. Skepticism should be the default option, no? :) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20030828/23975af6/attachment.htm>



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