Participant Information Sheet

Name of department: School of Government and Public Policy, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

Title of the study: Support for Democracy Around the World 2023

Participating Researchers: Professor Robert Mattes, School of Government and Public Policy, University of Strathclyde, and Senior Lecturer Christopher Claassen, School of Social Science and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow.

What is the purpose of this research? The aim of this survey is to understand what South Africans think about their political system. The project is part of an international project examining people’s opinion in 20 countries around the world. All survey respondents are asked the same questions in each country.

Do you have to take part? Participation is entirely voluntary. You are free to withdraw from the project at any time, up to the point of completion, without having to give a reason. There are no consequences for withdrawal.

What will you do in the project? We would be very if you could complete the questions online.

Why have you been invited to take part? You have been randomly selected from GeoPoll’s list of participating South Africans.

What information is being collected in the project? The questionnaire asks a number of questions about how you feel about the goals and performance of your political system, as well as a few questions about your personal background.

Who will have access to the information? Access to the data will be limited to the researchers involved. The data may be shared with other academic researchers provided they agree to abide by all research ethics rules for this study.

Where will the information be stored and how long will it be kept for? Data will be stored electronically in a secure and anonymised format. The data may be retained for further research, and if so will be deposited in the University of Cape Town’s DataFirst data archive (without any time limit).  Access will be strictly limited to academic researchers abiding by all the rules of research ethics and data protection legislation.

What happens next? After the data has been analysed, we plan to present the results to academic conferences and publish in an academic journal. Copies of the texts of any published material will be made available via the website https://pureportal.strath.ac.uk/en/persons/robert-mattes.

Chief investigator/researcher contact details: Professor Robert Mattes, School of Government and Public Policy, University of Strathclyde, 16 Richmond Street, Glasgow G1 1XQ, Tel. +44 (0)141 548 2733,  Email: [email protected].

Ethical approval: The survey has been approved by the Ethics Committee of the School of Government and Public Policy. If you have any questions about the ethical aspects of the survey, please contact the Chair of the Research Committee, Dr Wolfgang Rudig, Reader, School of Government and Public Policy, University of Strathclyde, 16 Richmond Street, Glasgow G1 1XQ, Tel.  0141 548 2918, Email: [email protected].

Consent: By participating in the survey, you consent to the collection, storage and processing of the data for exclusively scientific purposes. This consent is given on the basis that you have read and understood the Participant Information Sheet for the project and on the understanding that participation in this project is entirely voluntary and that any information recorded in the research will remain confidential and no information that identifies you will be made publicly available.

Further information on the legal basis for our research and your rights under the Data Protection Act 2018 is available in this Privacy Notice for Research Participants which can be downloaded by pasting the following address into your browser address bar:

https://www.strath.ac.uk/media/ps/rkes/ethics/Privacy_Notice_Research_Participants_v0.8.docx