Do you agree that politics seems too complicated for a person like you to understand?

Politics seems too complicated to understand · Asked in 22 waves, 1952–2012 · 38,817 responses · weighted estimates computed from individual responses

Codes that include 'no Pre/Post IW' were dropped for respondents without that interview. Dropped only in years where the codebook names a design split (alternate form, half sample, abbreviated or web instrument): 0 in 2008. Kept and flagged: 0 (no_answer), 9 (dk). Codebook notes: See introductory text VCF0609. GENERAL NOTE: The order in which questions VCF0609-VCF0618 appeared may have varied. Prior to 1988, response options were read to R. In 1988 and later (except 2000 telephone and 2002), response options were shown to R in the Respondent Booklet. Code 1 includes: ‘strongly agree’ and ‘agree’ from the 1966 data ‘agree strongly’ and ‘agree somewhat’ from 1988 and later data (exc. 2002). Code 2 includes: ‘strongly disagree’ and ‘disagree’ from the 1966 data; ‘disagree somewhat’ and ‘disagree strongly’ from 1988 and later data (exc. 2002). 1988 NOTE: Placement varied by form. 1996 NOTE: This question was asked in both the Pre and Post; Pre data are included here. 2008 NOTE: This question was administered to a random half sample of respondents (verion ‘C’); the remaining respondents were administered an alternative version of the question (version ‘D’). 2012 NOTE: This question was asked of a random 1/2 sample of respondents (the remaining 1/2 sample was asked a different version of the question). 2016 NOTE: The 2016 version of this question is not comparable.