| Chapter 1: | Democratization in Modernizing Societies |
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By the time the Fourth Wave was finished in 2001–2002, the survey had covered more than 60 societies and over 80% of the world’s population, generating a huge amount of research. The survey asks respondents’ opinions on family, work, society, government, religion, and personal life. Earlier research on such data has identified significant and coherent patterns of value change in different societies (Inglehart, 1997).
Sample Size
For the countries of interest in my study, WVS contains four waves of data from Japan and South Korea (1980, 1990, 1995, & 2000), three waves of data from China (1990, 1995, & 2000), and one wave of data from Taiwan (1995), Vietnam (2001), and Singapore (2002). Table 1.1 shows the sample sizes of each wave of WVS in the countries included in the current study.
The WVS headquarters coordinates this project using a unified survey questionnaire and a representative country sample.
Table 1.1. Sample size for selected countries.
| Year | 1981 | 1990 | 1995–1996 | 2000–2001 | Total |
| Countries | |||||
| China | 1,000 | 1,500 | 1,000 | 3,500 | |
| Taiwan | 1,452 | 1,452 | |||
| South Korea | 970 | 1,251 | 1,249 | 1,200 | 4,670 |
| Japan | 1,204 | 1,011 | 1,054 | 1,362 | 4,631 |
| Vietnam | 1,500 | 1,500 | |||
| Singapore | 1,500 | 1,500 | |||
| Total | 2,174 | 3,262 | 5,255 | 6,562 | 17,253 |
Source. WVS.