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Discourse on the Globality of Global Polls - Initiating a discourse on their Replicability, Projectability and Practicality

Ijaz Gilani (Chairman, Gilani Research Foundation & Gallup Pakistan)
Takashi Inoguchi (President, Nigata University,Japan)
David Jodice (President & Chief Executive Officer, D3 Systems)
Colin Irwin (Research Fellow, Department of Politics, University of Liverpool)

Keywords: Comparative research

Abstract

In a WAPOR Annual Congress 2015 Paper, Tom Smith traced the history of multi-country surveys, convincingly demonstrating that the practice barely began 50 years ago. Large scale, trans-continental surveys have an even shorter life history. But they are gaining popularity and proliferating at a rapid pace. Many among them are the source of country ranking and global indices. Beyond their media audiences, policy makers take them seriously. Many among them, including the proponents of this panel proposal refer to them as global and regional polls and make important theoretical and policy judgements on the basis of their findings. It is we believe the appropriate time to bring this field under professional guidelines.

Our panel proposes to initiate a debate on whether there are sound professional guidelines on multi-country or global and regional polls as distinct from similar standards to which national polling practices have become accustomed to. While some may argue that a young field should not be scuttled before it grows and finds it own space, we argue that it is time a process should begin.

We define global and regional polls as those which report their findings for units which are either Beyond Nations (States) or Below Nations. They provide regional averages, and analyse demographic groups cutting across nations.

Considering the overall theme of WAPOR 2017, we link our methodological decisions with the regional and global polls for policy making by nations for whom international and transnational considerations are important; as well as policy making or policy influencing public entities which are by their very nature transnational or international.

The panel consists of three papers and commentary by a lead commentator. We are also proposing a panel chair from a tangential field, namely consumer market research, in which multi-national surveys and their transnational analyses have become a more widely practised norm.

Panel Proposed by: Dr. Ijaz Shafi Gilani and Dr.Takashi Inoguchi

Paper # 1: Polling the World in 100 Countries
Author: Dr. David Jodice

Dr. Jodice has a PhD. in Government from Harvard, has taught at Harvard, Georgetown and founded several research and development initiatives in the areas of cross-national political instability; opinion, media, market research; mobile-based apps etc.

Paper # 2: Polling 100,000 Citizens of the World
Author: Dr. Ijaz Shafi Gilani and Dr. Takashi Inoguchi

Dr. Gilani has a PhD. in Political Science from MIT, teaches and is on the board of various prominent academic institutions, has served as adviser to the Prime Minister, spearheaded various research projects, with several publications and travels extensively globally for conferences.

Professor Inoguchi has written and presented extensively on Political Theories, Comparative Politics, International Politics etc. He is prominent for his leadership in empirical research and within Japanese political circles.

Paper # 3: Regional and Global Peace Polls as a Factor in Policy Making
Author: Dr. Colin Irwin

Dr. Irwin completed his PhD thesis on the Inuit and how they developed a society without war then applied those lessons to conflict resolution in Northern Ireland and around the world available at www.peacepolls.org.

LEAD COMMENTATOR: Jacob Poushter (Senior Researcher, PEW)

Poushter graduated in international affairs from American university. An expert in international survey research on technology, extremism, international threats etc., with regular media contact on PEW’s findings.

PROPOSED CHAIR (Subject to approval): Finn Raben (Director General, ESOMAR)

Raben has post graduate degrees in business administration and marketing management, a rich career in market research and is a passionate advocate for the research community in all its guises- analytics, research, insight and consultancy.