Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The purpose of this project was to see how citizens view their interactions with officials in various post-communist countries, in particular, to see: what kinds of `unfair' treatment people complain about; whether they have personal experience of unfair treatment or whether they are simply repeating hearsay and gossip; whether people think the change from communism to democracy made things better or worse; what strategies people adopt in dealing with officials; whether people really resent flexible behaviour by officials or regard it as a useful facility, and finally, what changes they would make to improve the interaction between citizens and the state. Conversely, to look at the perceptions and experiences of officials themselves, providing them with a <i>right of reply</i>. Ukraine, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic were chosen as the focus for the research.

Main Topics:

The data set provides information on people's attitudes to economic and political reform; to government officials and their interactions with these; and their ideas on how to improve the official's behaviour, as well as the views of the officials themselves on these topics and their experiences dealing with the public.

Quota sample

Multi-stage stratified random sample

A quota sample was used for the officials' survey. A multi-stage stratified random sample was used for the survey of the public.

Face-to-face interview

Focus group discussions