Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR) and the University of Michigan's Center for Local, State and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) are launching a new public policy survey designed to tap the attitudes and opinions of Michigan's political insiders.
The online survey panel, making its way into the field today, will reach out to state “political insiders,” those considered most deeply involved in political advocacy, influence, and policymaking.
Legislators, legislative staff, administrative officials, and interest group leaders and lobbyists will be invited to take part in the Michigan Policy Insiders Panel (MPIP).
“Our goal is to understand how policymakers learn about state problems, how they develop political influence, and how they interact to produce policy solutions,” said Matt Grossmann, IPPSR director and political scientist. “It is an ambitious undertaking, and one we expect will be highly valuable to academic researchers, journalists, and decisionmakers at every level.”
The new survey will allow panel members to share their opinions on public policy ideas and the performance of Michigan’s institutions. Individual panel members and their data will be held in complete confidence, Grossmann said.
The results will enable comparisons between the opinions of state political leaders and those of Michigan citizens and local government leaders. Michigan public opinion is regularly measured in IPPSR’s State of the State Survey (SOSS). The opinions of local government officials are assessed biannually in CLOSUP’s Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS).
“We want to understand how the state policy community views its work and pinpoint any disconnect between public and elite opinion,” said MSU political scientist Dr. Eric Gonzalez Juenke, who co-directs the project.
“We are unaware of any other policy research quite like this partnership,” said Barry Rabe, director of CLOSUP and the J. Ira and Nicki Harris Professor of Public Policy at U-M’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. “This will open up unique avenues of research for those interested in better understanding state and local policy.”
Grossmann expects panelists to be surveyed at least four times a year. A second round of panel opinion will be sought later this year. The new panel survey will be administered by IPPSR’s Office for Survey Research, which has longstanding and wide-ranging expertise in online surveys.
For more information, contact Matt Grossmann, director of MSU's Institute for Public Policy and Social Research, at grossm63 at msu.edu or 517-884-8640.
To be added to the MPIP email list, please contact Cynthia Kyle at cynthia.kyle at ssc.msu.edu.