THE CONSTRUCTION OF POLITICAL DISCONTENT BY OPINION POLLS

In the Austrian public debate it is a commonplace observation that cit izens are massively disenchanted with their political elites. To this effect, apart from electoral and episodal data, empirical evidence is provided, above all, by opinion polls. The article examines the semant ics, premises and interpretation patterns which survey studies on poli tical evaluations in Austria routinely employ. Its critical-hermeneuti cal reconstruction leads to the conclusion that conventional questionn aires suffer from so many deficiencies that Austrians' notorious polit ical disenchantment may well be, to a considerable extent, a demoscopi c artefact.