Studying Expert Informants by Survey Methods: A Cross-National Inquiry

Abstract

Can a valid sample of informed, knowledgeable experts from many countries be obtained to give reasonably reliable reports on the introduction of planned programs of change in developing countries? In other words, can public opinion survey methods be used to obtain expert information as well as general public opinion in cross-national studies of developing countries? In spite of many obstacles and difficulties, the authors of this paper believe they have devised and used such a tool in their recent cross-national study of thirteen countries. Herbert H. Hyman is professor of Sociology at Columbia University, Gene N. Levine is Project Director at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development on leave from the Sociology Department of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Charles R. Wright is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles.