In order to understand citizen’s preferences, we constructed a number of indices as follows:
Lived Poverty
Service Availability
Service Delivery
Active Citizenship
Perception of Democracy
Political Trust
State Responsiveness
The rationale for including lived poverty was the finding that high levels of lived poverty
decrease respondents’ approval of government management of the economy, their support for
private provision of development services, and their support for economic reform (Mattes.
2010). The questions were re-coded as binary scores (see Appendix 1), and the mean score was
2.8 (sd.1.4). Lived Poverty was assumed for a score of 4 or more.
We also constructed an index of Service Availability, again based on the items identified in a
previous study (Mattes. 2010). These ten items are derived from direct observation by the
survey enumerators, and provide a measure of the kinds of services available in each
community around the interviewees.1 Hence, this measure is based on direct observation.
Electricity grid accessible to most houses
Piped water system accessible to most houses
Sewage system accessible to most houses
Cell phone service
Post office within easy walking distance
School within easy walking distance
Police station within easy walking distance
Health clinic within easy walking distance
Market stalls selling groceries and/or clothing within easy walking distance
Police in the PSU/EA
These responses were binary variables and were summed to give an overall index of service
delivery. The mean score was 5.4 (sd. 3.2).
A further index, on Service Delivery, was constructed for respondent’s actual perceptions of
economic and service delivery, using 13 questions on the government’s handling of key areas
around service delivery and economy.
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How well government has managed economy
How well government has improved living standards of poor
How well government has created jobs
How well government has kept prices stable
Handling narrowing income gaps
Handling reducing crime
How well government has improved basic health services
How well government has addressed educational needs
How well government has provided water and sanitation services
For every interview, enumerators record the availability of the services in the area in which the interview is
taking place.
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