The AsiaBarometer: Its Aim, Its Scope and Its Development

The AsiaBarometer is the public opinion survey project for Asia with the focus on the daily lives of ordinary people. From its commencement in 2002 to date, the AsiaBarometer project has conducted four consecutive annual surveys encompassing 27 countries and two areas of Asia. It intends to raise the standards of empirical research in social sciences in Asia to the levels comparable to those in the United States and Western countries. The growing literature based on the AsiaBarometer survey data and research outcomes indicates that the AsiaBarometer has been achieving its original goals. It has been successful in building solid empirical multi-country data bases in Asia for deeper and sharper analyses of Asia's developmental, democratizing and regionalizing potentials.