Surveys Under the Lens: How Public Administration Research Can Benefit from Citizen Survey Data

Abstract

Analyses of comparative survey data can contribute to a more thorough understanding of citizens’ perceptions of and attitudes toward government. Thus, especially in public administration research, survey data can be a valuable research resource. This research note aims at providing an inventory of comprehensive, open-access survey data to advance quantitative public administration research about citizens’ attitudes. Applying a systematic dataset research, we found a total of 23 surveys useful for advancing public administration research, especially research on citizen–state interaction. As major contributions, first, the note sheds light on current survey status quo by capturing both data origin and usage in research. Second, it outlines an agenda for future research to draw scholarly attention to research opportunities in public administration research that could be addressed by the data.