Adversaries in World War II, fierce economic competitors in the 1980s and early 1990s, Americans and Japanese nonetheless share a deep mutual respect. About two-thirds of Americans trust Japan a great deal or a fair amount and three-quarters of Japanese say they trust the United States, according to a new […] Read more »
How Iraqi Sunnis really feel about the Islamic State
… A decade worth of detailed public opinion survey data helps to explain why many Sunni Iraqis have tolerated the Islamic State to this point – and why they would support an effort to repel the Islamic State. My social research and marketing firm, IIACSS, has conducted intensive, nationwide surveys […] Read more »
Rethinking What It Means to Be Canadian
This month, the Angus Reid Institute, one of Canada’s leading polling companies, published a survey that asked Canadians a series of nuanced questions about their national culture. But a surprisingly sizable minority of Canadians — 24 percent — said the country had no unique culture to begin with. In French-speaking […] Read more »
Flawed campaign
Flawed strategy and faulty polling combined to produce a surprise outcome for many in Israel’s elections last week. While 10 parties carved out seats in the parliament, there were only two contenders for prime minister: incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud and Isaac Herzog of Labor. … Polls revealed that some 65 […] Read more »
How Israel’s Exit Pollsters Missed Right-Wing Rally For Netanyahu
The headlines Wednesday said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swept to a surprising and convincing victory in the Israeli election Tuesday after his Likud party won at least five more seats in parliament than its chief rival. But the victory wasn’t really that overwhelming because of the subtle nature of the […] Read more »
No easy win in Israel
By the time you read this, headlines will likely have proclaimed a “winner” in Israel’s election. However, because of Israel’s complex system, the real winner may remain a mystery for some time. Reaching the prime minister’s chair in Israel is a three-part process. Tuesday was Stage 1: CONT. Mark Mellman […] Read more »