Alternative measurement procedures and models for Political Efficacy

Saris, Willem E.; Torcal, Mariano

Alternative measurement procedures and models for Political Efficacy

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Citation

Saris, W, Torcal, M. Alternative measurement procedures and models for Political Efficacy. 2009. handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10230/28300

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Abstract

Through the years many different approaches to measure political efficacy have been proposed. Alternatives were proposed based on different numbers of items, alternative items, alternative measurement models and alternative response scales. Going back to the original theory alternative measurement models have been formulated for the two concepts distinguished in the Political Efficacy literature. These new models have been tested on the most complete data sets that exist for these concepts. It turned out that the new models fit better to the data then the commonly used one factor models. Next it is shown that for the measurement of concepts of political efficacy by direct questions is much better than by batteries with agree/disagree items. Based on these results alternative measures for the concepts of political efficacy have been formulated.