THE POLITICS AND PROBLEMATICS OF SURVEY-RESEARCH - POLITICAL ATTITUDESTUDIES DURING THE TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY IN SOUTH-AFRICA

The Althusserian nation of a problematic refers to the underlying conn ections among the elements of a body of thought that shape its orienta tion. It is employed to examine the relationship between the practical decisions governing the actual conduct of attitude surveys and their sociopolitical context. Two sets of surveys, on preferences for politi cal leaders and constitutional arrangements and on Black attitudes to sanctions against apartheid are analyzed that featured in the transiti on to democracy in South Africa. Decisions regarding the phases of que stionnaire design, fieldwork analysis, interpretation, and disseminati on are more or less explicit. It is found that in conjunction. they ma y predispose the survey to confirming specific presuppositions. Such a problematic is considered to be ideological. Based on further concret e examples of alternative survey practice, regulative commitments are proposed for each phase to ensure that the problematic of attitude sur veys, even in such polarized contexts, may instead be scientific.