Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Politics

Politics

Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious institutions. It consists of "social relations involving authority or power" and refers to the regulation of a political unit, and to the methods and tactics used to formulate and apply policy.

"Politics" ultimately comes from the Greek word "polis" meaning state or city. "Politikos" describes anything concerning the state or city affairs. In Latin, this was "politicus" and in French "politique". Thus it became "politics" in the English language

As an Academic Discipline

Political science (also political studies), the study of politics, examines the acquisition and application of power. Related areas of study include political philosophy, which seeks a rationale for politics and an ethic of public behavior, political economy, which attempts to develop understandings of the relationships between politics and the economy and the governance of the two, and public administration, which examines the practices of governance.

Left-Right Politics

Recently in history, political analysts and politicians divide politics into left wing and right wing politics, often also using the idea of center politics as a middle path of policy between the right and left. This classification is comparatively recent (it was not used by Aristotle or Hobbes, for instance), and dates from the French Revolution era, when those members of the National Assembly who opposed the monarchy sat on the left, while those who supported it sat on the right. The original meaning disappeared quickly. A particularly influential event was the publication of the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in 1848. The Manifesto suggested a course of action for a proletarian revolution to overthrow the bourgeois society and abolish private property, in the belief that this would lead to a classless and stateless society.

The meaning of left-wing and right-wing varies considerably between different countries and at different times, but generally speaking, it can be said that the right wing often values tradition and capitalism while the left wing often values egalitarianism.

According to Norberto Bobbio, one of the major exponents of this distinction, the Left believes in attempting to eradicate social inequality, while the Right regards most social inequality as the result of ineradicable natural inequalities, and sees attempts to enforce social equality as utopian or authoritarian. Some ideologies, notably Christian Democracy, claim to combine left and right wing politics; according to Geoffrey K. Roberts and Patricia Hogwood, "In terms of ideology, Christian Democracy has incorporated many of the views held by liberals, conservatives and socialists within a wider framework of moral and Christian principles." Movements which claim or formerly claimed to be above the left-right divide include Gaullism in France, Peronism in Argentina, and National Action Politics in Mexico.

Authoritarian-Libertarian Politics

Authoritarianism and libertarianism refer to the amount of individual freedom each person possesses in that society relative to the state. One author describes authoritarian political systems as those where "individual rights and goals are subjugated to group goals, expectations and conformities", while a libertarian political system is one in which individual rights and civil liberties are paramount. More extreme than libertarians are anarchists, who argue for the total abolition of government, while the most extreme authoritarians are totalitarians who support state control over all aspects of society.

For instance, classical liberalism (also known as laissez-faire liberalism, or, in much of the world, simply liberalism) is a doctrine stressing individual freedom and limited government. This includes the importance of human rationality, individual property rights, free markets, natural rights, the protection of civil liberties, constitutional limitation of government, and individual freedom from restraint as exemplified in the writings of John Locke, Adam Smith, David Hume, David Ricardo, Voltaire, Montesquieu and others. According to the libertarian Institute for Humane Studies, "the libertarian, or 'classical liberal,' perspective is that individual well-being, prosperity, and social harmony are fostered by 'as much liberty as possible' and 'as little government as necessary.'"

Food politics

Food politics

Food politics are the political aspects of the production, control, regulation, inspection and distribution of food. The politics can be affected by the ethical, cultural, medical and environmental disputes concerning proper farming, agricultural and retailing methods and regulations.

Contents

  • 1 Policy
  • 2 Technology
  • 3 Security
  • 4 Charity
  • 5 Hunger
  • 6 Retailing

Policy

Government policy now plays a significant role in the production, safety, and distribution of food. The government can regulate the proper storage and preparation of foods, and the enforcement of these regulations has been strongly influenced by public outcry following outbreaks of food poisoning. As a result the inspection of food has become a function of the government.

Technology

The use of certain technological advances to enhance the production of food has become a controversial political issue. The increasing use of factory farming techniques have resulted in criticisms, as opponents believe these methods increase the risk of foodborne illnesses and other risks to the food supply as well as severe environmental degradation with regards to extreme levels of ammonia and greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane being released. With factory farming (aka Combined Animal Feeding Operations or CAFOs; or feedlots) many have open air manure lagoons that create major problems when they often leak or the run-off enters local bodies of water, sending toxins into the water supply. The introduction of genetically modified food has likewise become controversial, and there has been much criticism about the risks of gene transfer and food consumption. Finally, there are political activist groups who have concerns about the proper handling of animals, such as the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Security

In the past, the denial of food deliveries has been used as a weapon in war. For example, during World War I the blockade of the central powers led to significant shortages of food. Likewise during both world wars, the German submarine blockade was intended to starve Britain into submission.

Food security is an important political issue as national leaders attempt to maintain control of sufficient food supplies for their nation. It can drive national policy, encourage the use of subsidies to stimulate farming, or even lead to conflict.

In 1974, the World Food Summit defined food security as:

availability at all times of adequate world food supplies of basic foodstuffs to sustain a steady expansion of food consumption and to offset fluctuations in production and prices

Charity

The charitable giving of food exists in a number of countries; the primary purpose being to provide basic essentials for the disadvantaged. Some government programs have also been established to assist with food donations. These programs provide food for school lunch programs, as well as the elderly.

Hunger

Main article: Hunger

Malnutrition and starvation continue to be a persistent problem in some areas of the world. The effects of low agricultural output can be exacerbated by internecine struggles, such as the famine conditions that occurred in Somalia during the 1990s. But even under more stable conditions, hunger persists in some nations. Images of starvation can have a powerful influence, leading to charitable and even military intervention.

Retailing

During the late 1990s and early 21st century a significant amount of discussion and debate has developed surrounding the role of supermarkets in the retailing of food and the impacts of supermarkets both on the supply and production of food. Due to the buying power of the large supermarket chains they can put huge demands on producers, often pushing prices artificially low, whilst still making large profits on the food themselves with some products selling at over 400% the price paid to producers, whilst farmers may only make 50p profit on each animal produced domestically. This buying power also allows supermarkets to transcend national boundaries in sourcing food, for example in the UK where the food market is highly dominated by supermarkets only 25% of apples sold in supermarkets are produced domestically with out-of-season cox apples being flown 14,000 miles from New Zealand, despite the UK being a natural producer of apples. Furthermore due to the national nature of the supply networks used by supermarkets often involve domestically produced foodstuffs being transported around the country before being delivered to retailers, creating a huge impact both on traffic and pollution.

Government simulation game

Government simulation game

A government simulation or political simulation is a game that attempts to simulate the government and politics of all or part of a nation. These games may include geopolitical situations (involving the formation and execution of foreign policy), the creation of domestic political policies, or the simulation of political campaigns. They differ from the genre of classical wargames due to their discouragement or abstraction of military or action elements.

Contents

  • 1 Background
  • 2 Computer gaming
  • 3 Online games
  • 4 Related games
  • 5 Training and education

Background

A screenshot from the 2005 computer adaptation of Diplomacy, first created as a board game in 1954.

Games based on geopolitics and elections existed long before the emergence of personal computers and their ability to quickly process large amounts of statistical data. One of the earliest such games was The Game of Politics, created by Oswald Lord in 1935 which remained in print until 1960. In 1954, the board game Diplomacy was created, which differs from other wargames in that it features a "negotiation" phase during which players reach agreements with other players, and then execute military moves simultaneously. National politics has remained a vital area of board gaming, with products such as the 1986 board game Die Macher featuring elections in Germany, and Wreck the Nation which satirizes the politics of the United States under the Bush administration. After enjoying years as a play-by-mail game, Diplomacy was one of the first games to move to take advantage of e-mail, and continues to be a popular email game as of 2007.

Computer gaming

A screenshot from the Atari ST version of Balance of Power.

As computers became more sophisticated, games in this genre moved beyond e-mail to more complex simulations. One of the earliest titles in this genre was Balance of Power, designed by Chris Crawford and published in 1985. This game features conflict at the height of the Cold War, using political and policy decisions to shape outcomes rather than warfare In Balance of Power, any armed conflict between the player and the opponent superpower results in a nuclear war, which is considered a loss condition.

Other Cold War era games included Conflict: Middle East Political Simulator created by Virgin Interactive, and Spectrum Holobyte's Crisis in the Kremlin. Conflict simulated a hypothetical situation in 1997 in which the player assumed the role of the Israeli Prime Minister and was obligated to employ various diplomatic and covert directives to defeat its rival nations. Surrounded by hostile nations, the player was restrained by a very limited military force and was thereby encouraged to employ peaceful means to remain in power until he acquired more advanced weapons systems and power.

In Crisis in the Kremlin, the user could play as any of the three Soviet politicians Mikhail Gorbachev representing the reform party, Yegor Ligachev, the leader of the hard line party and Boris Yeltsin who was the prevalent figure of the nationalist party. The player could use the simulation to test certain strategies to lead the failing Soviet Union into a new era of prosperity or force its dissolution and integration into the new world order. This game introduced the concept of budget management, citizen and faction satisfaction as well as multiple economic values and political spectrum.

Early political simulation games were intended more for education than entertainment. In 1987, On the Campaign Trail was developed as a tool at Kent State University's political campaign management program, and engaged students in decision-making regarding the campaigns for United States Senate elections between 1970 and 1986.Subsequently, a commercial market developed for packaged games involving elections and campaigns.

A screenshot from Stardock's Political Machine game.

The 1992 game Power Politics (and, before it, 1981's President Elect), focused on domestic United States political campaigns (but not the running of the country upon election). In 1996, this was adapted to the Doonesbury Election Game, designed by Randy Chase (who also did Power Politics) and published by Mindscape, in which players conducted a campaign with the assistance of a pool of advisors selected from characters in the Doonesbury comic strip, a successor entitled Power Politics III was released in 2005. In 2004, Stardock published Political Machine, in which the player steers a candidate through a 41-week election cycle for United States President, developing policies and tailoring talk show appearances and speech content. The game is heavily tied to modern polling methods, using real-time feedback for how campaign strategy impacts polling numbers. In 2006, TheorySpark released President Forever 2008 + Primaries, an election simulation game that allows the player to realistically control an entire election campaign through both the Primaries and General Election.

Some games in the genre involve enacting policies and budget decisions to sway voters. One such game is Democracy, published in 2005 by Positech Games. In Democracy, players make decisions during each turn regarding which policies to support. As turns progress, the player views how their favorability rating changes amongst certain types of voters. Candidates make promises before each election, and failure to follow-through can result in lower support during the player's reelection campaign. Another is Commander in Chief (video game), produced by Eversim, boasting an array of choices for domestic policy and decisions. Another such game is Tropico.

There can also be found games that puts the player in the seat of a state leader, such as SuperPower, and its sequel, SuperPower 2, whose goals are to produce economic stability and prosperity, but the game mainly evolves around foreign policies, with the abilities to interact with other countries in many ways. The game includes a great number of real-life treaties that influence countries.

Online games

There are also forum-based roleplaying games of government simulation and nation simulation. These types of games allow players to participate in a government simulation game via a web based forum .

Related games

A mature city from SimCity 4.

Other construction and management simulations require government management. For example, city-building games such as the SimCity series of games published by Maxis simulates the experience of being a mayor. SimCity features a real-time environment in which the player can create zones for city development, build roads, power and water utilities, and watch as their city develops based on their decisions. The game was originally published in 1989 and as of 2003 was in its fourth major release. Strategy games frequently make use of government management challenges. 4X games require the management of a government, be it tribal or interstellar. This includes tasks such as building infrastructure and conducting trade. Galactic Civilizations II requires players to manage their approval rating to keep their political party in power. Domestic policy is sometimes abstracted with more emphasis on international conflict. For example, the Civilization series gives players total control over resources, and radically restructuring an empire is a matter of clicking the "REVOLUTION!" button.

Other strategy games focus on government management to varying degrees. For instance, in the Hearts of Iron games (set in World War II) the civilian population is only a factor with partisans and manpower, whereas in Victoria a player must not only hobnob and conquer, but implement the Second Industrial Revolution while warding off - or ushering in - the more literal ones of 1848, communism, etc.

Government and politics have also been incorporated into adventure games. A Mind Forever Voyaging, published by Infocom in 1985, was an interactive fiction game in which the player controlled a sentient computer capable of experimenting with potential future scenarios based on varying public policy decisions. Newsweek said of the game, "It isn't '1984,' but in some ways it is even scarier."

Training and education

Beyond entertainment, these games have practical applications in training and education of government personnel. Training simulations have been created for subjects such as managing law enforcement policies (such as racial profiling), the simulation of a military officer's career, and hospital responses to emergency situations.

Music and politics

Music and politics

There is a long history of the connection between music and politics, particularly political expression in music. This expression can use anti-establishment or protest themes, including anti-war songs, although pro-establishment ideas are also used, for example in national anthems, patriotic songs, and political campaigns. Many of these types of songs could be described as topical songs. Unlike many other types of music, political music is not usually ambiguous, and is used to portray a specific political message. While the political message in political music is apparent, it is usually in the political context of the time it was made—which makes understanding the historical events and time that inspired the music essential to fully understanding the message in the music. Since political music is meant to be heard by the people, it is often meant to be popular.

Contents

  • 1 Classical music
  • 2 Contemporary classical music
  • 3 Folk music
  • 4 Rock music
  • 5 Punk rock
  • 6 Hip hop
  • 7 Country music
  • 8 Comedy music
  • 9 New musicology
  • 10 Pop music
  • 11 Further reading

Classical music

Beethoven's third symphony was originally called "Bonaparte". In 1804 Napoleon crowned himself emperor, whereupon Beethoven rescinded the dedication. The symphony was renamed "Heroic Symphony composed to Celebrate the Memory of a Great Man".

Verdi's chorus of Hebrew slaves in the opera Nabucco is sometimes considered to be a kind of rallying-cry for Italians to throw off the yoke of Austrian domination (in the north) and French domination (near Rome) - the "Risorgimento". Following unification, Verdi was awarded a seat in the national parliament.

RAPM (The Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians) was formed in the early 1920s. In 1929 Stalin gave them his backing. Shostakovich had dedicated his first symphony to Mikhail Kvardi. In 1929 Kvardi was arrested and executed. In an article in The Worker and the Theatre, Shostakovich's The Tahitit Trot (from the ballet The Golden Age) was criticised. "Can one actually dance to such music", said Ivan Yershov. the article claimed it was part of "ideology harmful to the proletariat"". Shostakovich's response was to write his third symphony, The First of May (1929) to express "the festive mood of peaceful construction".

Prokofiev wrote music to order for the Soviet Union, but managed to keep his musical standard high. Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution (1937) is far from banal. Khachaturian's ballet Spartacus (1954/6) concerns gladiator slaves who rebel against their former Roman masters. It was seen as a metaphor for the overthrow of the Czar. Similarly Prokofiev's music for the film Alexander Nevsky concerns the attack of Teutonic knights into the Baltic states. It was seen as a metaphor for the Nazi invasion of the USSR. In general Soviet music was neo-romantic while Fascist music was neo-classical.

"I don't believe anyone venerates Mussolini more than I" said Stravinsky in 1930 to a Rome newspaper. By 1943 Stravinsky was banned in Nazi Germany because he had chosen to live in the USA. Beginning in 1940, Orff's cantata Carmina Burana was performed at Nazi Party functions, and acquired the status of a quasi-official anthem.In 1933 Berlin Radio issued a formal ban on the broadcasting of jazz. However, it was still possible to hear swing music played by German bands. This was because of the moderating influence of Goebbels, who knew the value of entertaining the troops. In the period 1933-45 the music of Mahler, a Jewish Austrian, virtually disappeared from the concert performances of the Berlin Philharmonic.

Richard Strauss's opera Die Schweigsame Frau was banned from 1935–1945 because the librettist, Stefan Zweig, was a Jew. In the Trblinka death camp, new arrivals were presented with a deceptive scene. A ten-piece orchestra played jazz and Jewish folk tunes Shloyme Klezmer stood by the entrance of the gas chambers and played with the orchestra as the bodies were gassed. He saw his son being led in and pulled him out of the line. As SS officer saw this and laughed. Shloyme smashed his violin over the SS officer's head and marched with his only child into the gas chamber.

Contemporary classical music

Benjamin Britten's War Requiem (1962) emphasised the futility of war, by quoting poems by Wilfred Owen. He had previously written a "Pacifist March" in 1937. He had been a conscientious objector during the Second World War.

Adams' opera The Death of Klinghoffer (1991) concerns the killing of an American Jew by Palestinian terrorists. The audience had expected to see the demonisation of the terrorists, but instead saw an even-handed treatment of the Palestine Liberation Front. Richard Taruskin of the University of California accused Adams of "romanticizing terrorists."

A range of contemporary classical composers of socialist or Marxist sympathies have attempted in often quite radically different ways to relate their politics to their work. Primary amongst those from the earlier 20th century are Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler, both of whom moved away from atonal idioms that had become prominent in their time, feeling these to alienate audiences, towards music and music-theatre that had roots in popular musics (for example cabaret songs), though with sophisticated harmonies that reflected their musical background. Of post-war composers, the most significant of the earlier generations were Luigi Nono and Hans Werner Henze, both of who wrote a wide range of works that combined music with texts, theatre, and electronics relating to political issues viewed from a Marxist perspective (for example to do with events in Cuba, Vietnam and Chile in Nono's work). Nono brought this subject matter into a dialogue with a relatively abstract music derived from his own earlier serial compositions, from his pioneering work Il Canto Sospeso (1956) onwards, whilst Henze relaxed his earlier formalism in favour of a more eclectic approach to musical style, as for example in his large scale cabaret-like work Voices (1973).

A range of slightly later composers in West Germany, including Helmut Lachenmann, Nicolaus A. Huber (both of whom were students of Nono), and Mathias Spahlinger responded to political concerns in a more abstract fashion, reflecting to some extent the ideas of Theodor Adorno and writing in opposition to the perceived demands made upon music (in terms of passive listening, audience pleasing, and so on) made by the culture industry. Lachenmann and Spahlinger explored a musical vocabulary derived in large measure from unusual techniques upon instruments, to offer expressive possibilities outside of the boundaries of what Lachenmann called the 'philharmonic tradition'. Huber for a while in the 1970s withdraw from the contemporary concert circuit, instead writing Politische Revuen. Other German composers whose works relate to this tradition, though with a more eclectic use of idiom, include Dieter Schnebel, Konrad Boehmer and Gerhard Stabler. Marxist ideas on aesthetic matters could be found in the writings on music by Hans G. Helms and Heinz-Klaus Metzger.

A thoroughly different approach characterised the late work of the British composer Cornelius Cardew who, influenced by the writings of Christopher Caudwell (also alluded to by Lachenmann in his work for two guitars Salut für Caudwell (1977)) and Mao Tse-Tung, famously denounced the work of the post-war avant-garde with which he had previously been associated, in his book Stockhausen Serves Imperialism (in which he attacked not just Karlheinz Stockhausen but also the music of John Cage and others). Cardew argued that the atonal music of the avant-garde served to exacerbate the fragmentation of society rather than bringing the masses together; with this in mind he turned to the composition of didactic settings of revolutionary songs from Ireland, China, and elsewhere. Other composers influenced by Maoism include the Americans Christian Wolff and Frederic Rzewski and the Japanese composer-pianist Yuji Takahashi, all of whom also incorporated political song material into their compositions, though without wholly surrendering the other more abstract musical concerns of their earlier work, whilst the British composer Dave Smith continued to some extent in the tradition established by Cardew, as well as frequently making use of the medium of the nineteenth-century melodrama for speaker and piano, with a wide variety of texts relating to issues in Ireland, Palestine, and elsewhere.

The British composer Richard Barrett stands apart from other tendencies in that country, working within a radical atonal avant-garde idiom a little in the manner of the German composers mentioned earlier, but equally influenced by other figures including Stockhausen, Hans-Joachim Hespos, Xenakis, Kagel, Michael Finnissy and others. Barrett is concerned to marry together sophistication of musical content with a degree of surface immediacy, thus developing a musical language from fundamental parameters of register, density, dynamics, texture and timbre so as to facilitate the music's surface accessibility to the uninitiated listener. Finnissy himself has alluded to politicised topics in various works, especially in his English Country-Tunes, a ravaged musical landscape tinged with moments of nostalgia (not unlike the films of Derek Jarman), intended as a comment on the hypocrisy and falseness of English pastoralism. The British composer Gordon Downie writes in a highly abstract modernist idiom and in writings links this type of modernism with Marxist concerns. The British arts journal EONTA, under the editorship of Steven Holt, featured a range of writings on music and other arts from various Marxist perspectives.

Other composers identify with a non-Marxist left, which may embrace non- or anti-authoritarian, left-liberal, Green, or even Anarchist politics. John Cage, for example, was influenced by ideas of Henry David Thoreau and other anarchist writers. Cage's concept of an "anarchic harmony" has been taken up by younger composers, including Andrew Culver and Daniel James Wolf. Many composers are engaged with environmental issues and may be usefully identified with Green politics.

Folk music

The song "We Shall Overcome" is perhaps the best-known example of political folk music, in this case a rallying-cry for the Civil Rights Movement. Pete Seeger was involved in the popularization of the song, as was Joan Baez. During the early part of 20th century, poor working conditions and class struggles lead to the growth of the Labour movement and numerous songs advocating social and political reform. The most famous songwriter of the early 20th century "Wobblies" was Joe Hill. In the 1940s through the 1960s, The Weavers as well as Woody Guthrie were influential in this type of social and political music. Pete Seeger's "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", was a popular anti-war protest song. Many of these types of songs became popular during the Vietnam War era. Blowin' in the Wind, by Bob Dylan, was a hit for Peter, Paul and Mary, and suggested that a younger generation was becoming more aware of global problems than many of the older generation. In 1964, Joan Baez had a top-ten hit in the UK with "There but for Fortune" (by Phil Ochs). It was a plea for the innocent victim of prejudice or inhumane policies. Many topical songwriters with social and political messages emerged out of the folk music revival of the 1960s, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, and many others. These traditions are still being carried on today by many old and new topical songwriters and musicians of all types and varieties.

Blues songs tend to be resigned to fate rather than fighting against misfortune, but there are a few exceptions. Josh White recorded "When Am I going to be Called a Man" in 1936. At this time it was common for white men to address black men as "boy". He also wrote "Silicosis is Killing Me" in 1936. Billie Holiday recorded "Strange Fruit" in 1939. With great sophistication, it draws a comparison between fruit on the trees and the rotting corpses of lynched black men.

Paul Robeson, singer, actor, athlete, and civil rights activist, was investigated by the FBI and was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) for his outspoken political views. The State Department denied Robeson a passport and issued a "stop notice" at all ports, effectively confining him to the United States. In a symbolic act of defiance against the travel ban, labor unions in the U.S. and Canada organized a concert at the International Peace Arch on the border between Washington state and the Canadian province of British Columbia on May 18, 1952. Paul Robeson stood on the back of a flat bed truck on the American side of the U.S.-Canada border and performed a concert for a crowd on the Canadian side, variously estimated at between 20,000 and 40,000 people. Robeson returned to perform a second concert at the Peace Arch in 1953, and over the next two years two further concerts were scheduled.

In Communist China, exclusively national music was promoted. A flautist named Zhao Songtime, a member of the Zhejiang Song-and-Dance Troupe, attended an Arts festival in 1957 in Mexico. He was punished for his international outlook by being expelled from the Troupe. From 1966 to 1970 he underwent "re-education". In 1973 he returned to the Troupe but was expelled again following accusations.

Rock music

Rock the Vote is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan organization founded in Los Angeles in 1990 by Jeff Ayeroff for the purposes of political advocacy. Rock the Vote works to engage youth in the political process by incorporating the entertainment community and youth culture into its activities. Rock the Vote's stated mission is to "build the political clout and engagement of young people in order to achieve progressive change in our country."

Some rock groups, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Living Colour, Rage Against the Machine, and System of a Down have openly political messages in their music.

Detroit, Michigan's MC5 (Motor City 5) came out of the underground rock music scene of the late 1960s, and displayed an aggressive evolution of garage rock which was often fused with sociopolitical and countercultural lyrics of the era, such as in the songs "Motor City Is Burning" (a John Lee Hooker cover adapting the story of the Detroit Race Riot (1943) to the Detroit Insurrection of 1967), and "The American Ruse" (which discusses U.S. police brutality as well as pollution, prison, materialism and rebellion). They had ties to radical leftist organizations such as Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers and John Sinclair's White Panther Party (composed of white American socialists seeking to assist African Americans in the Civil Rights Movement). MC5 performed a set before the 1968 Democratic Convention held at International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois where an infamous riot subsequently broke out between police and students protesting the recent assassination of The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Vietnam War.

Punk rock

Since the 1970s, punk rock has been associated with various anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian ideologies, including anarchism and socialism. Notable punk artists such as Crass, Discharge, Millions of Dead Cops, Amebix, Dead Kennedys, Sum 41, Anti-Flag, Patti Smith and Black Flag have been known to use political and sometimes controversial lyrics that attack the establishment, sexism, capitalism, racism, colonialism, and other things they see as problems in society. The Sex Pistols song "God Save the Queen" was banned due to perceptions that it was anti-monarchy. Where as the Crass album The Feeding Of the 5000 almost was not released because workers in the plants refused to release it due to anti-religious lyrical content, and later Crass albums were banned. Crass eventually even ended up in court on charges of Obsenity, similar to what later happened in the USA to the Dead Kenedies over their frankenchrist album. Even more mainstream pop punk like Green Day's "American Idiot" caused controversy among George W. Bush supporters who believed it was unpatriotic, anti-nationalist, and anti-American.

Hip hop

Racism and inequality are common themes in hip hop music.

Rap artist Sean "P Diddy" Combs led "Vote or Die", a not-for-profit organization, around the 2004 elections that was geared to draw more youthful voters into the polls. The "Vote or Die" campaign was successful in its efforts, as it drew 20.9 million votes from the youth demographic (age 18-29) — up from 16.2 million in 2000. The overall turnout for the age group increased as well. 51 percent of citizens ages 18 to 29 voted in 2004. 42.3 percent voted in 2000.

Public Enemy was known for their politically charged lyrics, especially for their album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, and the song "Fight the Power". Frontman Chuck D is the main advocate for political awareness in the group.

Immortal Technique, Flobots, dead prez, and The Coup are all noted for their left-wing views and lyrics.

Country music

American country music contains numerous images of "traditional" life, family life, religious life, as well as patriotic themes. Songs such as Merle Haggard's "The Fightin' Side of Me", and "Okie from Muskogee" are patriotic songs which contain an "us versus them" mentality directed at the counterculture "hippies" and the anti-war crowd. In more recent years, Haggard has become critical of "the establishment", and even disagreed with the Iraq War. Other country musicians, such as Charlie Daniels, openly supported George W. Bush, the Iraq War, and Conservative politics in general. When Natalie Maines, lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, made negative comments about George W. Bush and publicly spoke out against the decision to invade Iraq in 2003, boycotts by country music radio stations and death threats hindered the band's continued success. In 2006, with Maines still acting as lead singer, the Dixie Chicks released a "comeback" album, Taking the Long Way. The album subsequently won five Grammys.

Comedy music

Through the years, there have been numerous songs that have made fun of politicians and/or politics in general. One such group in the modern era primarily dedicated to political music and satire is the Capitol Steps.

New musicology

New musicology is the cultural study, analysis, and criticism of music. It is often based on the work of Theodor Adorno (and Walter Benjamin) and feminist, gender studies, or postcolonial hypotheses. As Susan McClary says, "musicology fastidiously declares issues of musical signification off-limits to those engaged in legitimate scholarship", including politics.

Pop music

Official statistics

Official statistics

Official statistics on France in 2007, published in UNECE Countries in Figures 2007.

Official statistics are statistics published by government agencies or other public bodies such as international organizations. They provide quantitative or qualitative information on all major areas of citizens' lives, such as economic and social development, living conditions, health, education , and the environment.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, statistics were a method for counting and listing populations and State resources. The term statistics comes from the Latin status (state) indicating that the origin of the profession related to the needs of governments. The term official statistics simply describes statistics from an organization or institution that officially belongs to the State. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, "official statistics are statistics disseminated by the national statistical system, excepting those that are explicitly not to be official".

Another definition is given by Beimer and Lyberg in 2003

"Almost every country in the world has one or more government agencies (usually national institutes) that supply decision-makers and other users including the general public and the research community with a continuing flow of information (...). This bulk of data is usually called official statistics. Official statistics should be objective and easily accessible and produced on a continuing basis so that measurement of change is possible."

  • Official statistics result from the collection and processing of data into statistical information by the government institution responsible for that subject-matter domain. They are then disseminated to stakeholders and the general public. Statistical information allows users to draw a relevant, reliable and accurate picture of the development of the country, compare differences between countries and changes over time. They enable stakeholders and decision makers to be well informed and develop policies for addressing actual development challenges.
  • Official statistics make information on development accessible to the public and therefore assist in the accountability of public decision-making. One use of official statistics is to measure the impact of public policies and highlight the need for development.

Contents

  • 1 Aim of official statistics
  • 2 Various categories
  • 3 Most common indicators used in official statistics
  • 4 Users
    • 4.1 Users with a general interest
    • 4.2 Users with a business interest
    • 4.3 Users with a research interest
  • 5 Producers
  • 6 Production process
  • 7 Data revision
  • 8 Collection process
    • 8.1 Statistical survey or sample survey
    • 8.2 Register
    • 8.3 Census
  • 9 Official Statistics presentation
  • 10 Release
  • 11 Quality criteria to be respected
    • 11.1 Relevance
    • 11.2 Impartiality
    • 11.3 Dissemination
    • 11.4 Independence
    • 11.5 Transparency
    • 11.6 Confidentiality
    • 11.7 International standards

Aim of official statistics

Official statistics provide a picture of a country or different phenomena through data, and images such as graph and maps. Statistical information covers different subject areas (economic, demographic, social etc.). Statistical information serves a variety of uses for monitoring developments in a country as well as provides basic information for decision making, evaluations and assessments at different levels, and - traditionally - governments. Official statistics are a key component of description and comparison of the situation and development of a country. They are also essential for non-material content such as unregistered migration and economic transactions.

The goal of national statistical agencies is to produce relevant, objective and accurate statistics so that they keep people and organizations well informed about the aim and its development. They answer the public and users demands for better access to information, assisting good policy and decision-making.

In addition, demand by users for more information has significantly increased since computing technologies have greatly helped in dealing with growing volumes of data. In recent years there has been an increasing demand of a broadening range of users to be able to access information sources quickly and easily. The Internet has been one answer to this request that is why statistical agencies have developed their abilities to satisfy more standardized delivery models to meet users' expectations.

Various categories

The Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics were adopted in 1992 by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, UNECE. According to the first Principle "the official statistical information is an essential basis for development in the economic, demographic, social and environment fields and for mutual knowledge and trade among the states and peoples of the region".

Following is a list of the different statistical categories and their subgroups:

  • Demographic statistics concern the evolution of population and migration. They deal with the measurement of undeclared migration or measurement of emigration, migration flows, immigrant population, and foreign-born population. Social statistics provide data on society, on the population and all that surrounds it.

Demographic and social statistics include: population and migration, labour, education, health, income and consumption, social protection, human settlements and housing, justice and crime, culture, political and other community activities, time use, living conditions, poverty and cross-cutting social issues, information society.

  • Gender and special population groups statistics reflect the realities of the lives of women and men and policy issues related to gender such as domestic violence, violence against women, gender pay gap as well as elderly, disabled, minority groups.
  • Economic statistics is the branch of statistics that studies the economic activities of a country through macroeconomics statistics, economic accounts, business statistics, globalisation, sectoral statistics, agriculture-forestry-fisheries, energy, mining-manufacturing-construction, transport, tourism, banking-insurance-financial statistics, government finance-fiscal and public sector statistics, international trade and balance of payments, prices, labour cost, science and technology.

The category includes econometrics which is a combination of economics and statistics, whose aim is to analyse the economic relationship.

  • Environmental statistics concerns the environmental field and its variability, especially environment and sustainable development.

Most common indicators used in official statistics

A country’s profile can be summarized using only figures and data classified in different categories. Statistical indicators provide an overview of the social, demographic and economic structure of the country. Moreover, these indicators enable making comparisons between countries on an international scale, with agreements on those indicators.

For population, the main indicators are:

  • Total population
  • Population density
  • Population by age
  • Life expectancy at birth and at age 65
  • Foreign born
  • Foreigners in population
  • Total fertility rate
  • Infant mortality

The gender statistics include:

  • Women in labour force
  • Gender pay gap

In the employment category:

  • Employment rate
  • Unemployment rate
  • Youth unemployment rate
  • Economic activity rate (women and men)
  • Employment in major sectors: agriculture, industry, services

There are many indicators for the economy:

  • Gross Domestic Product
  • Gross Domestic Product per capita
  • Real GDP growth rate
  • GDP by major economic sectors: agriculture, industry, services
  • Consumer price index
  • Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)
  • Exchange rate
  • Gross external debt

For trade indicators we find:

  • Exports of goods and services
  • Imports of goods and services
  • Balance of payments
  • Trade balance
  • Major import partners
  • Major export partners

Environment indicators:

  • Land use
  • Water supply and consumption
  • Environmental protection expenditure
  • Generation and treatment of waste
  • Chemical use

For the energy field:

  • Total energy consumption
  • Primary energy sources
  • Energy consumption in transport
  • Electricity consumption
  • Consumption of renewable energy sources

Users

The three user types of official statistics

Official statistics are intended for a wide range of users including governments (central and local), research institutions, professional statisticians, journalists and the media, businesses, educational institutions and the general public. There are three types of users: those with a general interest, business interest or research interest. Each of these user groups has different needs for statistical information.

Users with a general interest

Users with a general interest include the media, schools and the general public. They use official statistics in order to be informed on a particular topic, to observe trends within the society of a local area, country, region of the world.

Users with a business interest

Users with a business interest include decision makers and users with a particular interest for which they want more detailed information. For them, official statistics are an important reference, providing information on the phenomena or circumstances their own work is focusing on. For instance, those users will take some official statistics into consideration before launching a product, or deciding on a specific policy or on a marketing strategy. As with the general interest users, this group does not usually have a good understanding of statistical methodologies, but they need more detailed information than the general users.

Users with a research interest

Users with a research interest are universities, consultants and government agencies. They generally understand something about statistical methodology and want to dig deeper into the facts and the statistical observations; they have an analytical purpose in inventing or explaining interrelations of causes and effects of different phenomena. In this field, official statistics are also used to assess a government's policies.

One common point for all these users is their need to be able to trust the official information. They need to be confident that the results published are authoritative and unbiased. Producers of official statistics must maintain a reputation of professionalism and independence.

The statistical system must be free from interference that could influence decisions on the choice of sources, methods used for data collection, the selection of results to be released as official, and the timing and form of dissemination. Statistical business processes should be transparent and follow international standards of good practice.

Statistical programs are decided on an annual or multi-annual basis by governments in many countries. They also provide a way to judge the performance of the statistical system.

Producers

Official statistics are collected and produced by national statistical institutes (NSIs) or national statistical offices (NSOs), depending on national administrations. They are responsible for producing and disseminating official statistical information, providing the highest quality data. The criteria for quality are: relevance and completeness, timeliness, accuracy, accessibility and clarity, cost efficiency, transparency, comparability and coherence, which are called quality principles. Their role is also to foster statistical literacy among important user groups and the general public.

The core tasks of NSOs, for both centralized and decentralized systems, are investing user needs and filtering these for relevance. Then they transform the relevant user needs into measurable concepts to facilitate data collection and dissemination. This is part of the production process.

Statistical agencies also determine the resources necessary for the various activities and ensure relevance by keeping permanent networks with various representatives of different types of users. Moreover statistical producers have to anticipate user needs when producing new types of statistics in order to speed up the process. It can be called the "antenna function". Another way to assess the quality of their services is to undertake periodically user satisfaction surveys.

Nevertheless, NSOs are usually not the only official and national institutes to produce official statistics. Central banks and some ministries or other central authorities may have statistical functions as well. Together, all producers of official statistics form the statistical system of a country. In some countries, especially those that have a federal structure, producers of official statistics exist also at regional or even municipal levels.

The NSO is in charge of the coordination between statistical producers and of ensuring the coherence and compliance of the statistical system to the principles. In countries with less than 25 million inhabitants, the NSO should also have the exclusive responsibility for all household surveys and all business surveys for official statistics. This should improve efficiency and ensure confidentiality.

The NSO has to pay particular attention to ensuring that the information materials, the terminology and the metadata of the statistical results disseminated are coherent and understandable for non-users especially in the case of diverging results compiled from different sources. The NSO also has to decide which ones are the official statistics. Moreover, it ensures the dissemination platforms for all official statistical registers from which contact information for sample surveys is extracted. Finally, the NSO should support and advise other producers of official statistics and organize meetings with all of them.

The NSO has a major responsibility as its President/Director General represents the entire system of official statistics, both at the national and at international levels. Statistical producers perform advocacy work on official statistics and can provide advice and services, such as training activities in order to broaden the know-how accumulated in the agency.

Production process

The usual production process of official statistics includes 6 steps:

  1. programming phase
  2. design phase
  3. data collection
  4. processing phase
  5. dissemination
  6. evaluation
  1. The programming phase starts the process with investigations into the information needs of users (topic of the information needed, its period, accuracy and timeliness). A lot of information is gathered, and then filtered in order to focus on one specific activity. Official statistics can generate results that fulfil a great number of user needs and not only target a unique user group. Filtering allows selecting relevant information. These needs are translated into the best way of collecting data from respondents.
  2. The design phase is when tests and statistical surveys are designed or redesigned and tested. The first surveys are called pilots. Tools and resources are also prepared to conduct the surveys and to implement them fully. This phase includes the definition of the results to be published as official.
  3. Data collection through statistical surveys can be done through different processes: by mail, face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, internet, sample survey, sampling frame.
  4. The processing phase includes data entry, control, coding and editing. This phase is highly IT-dependent; CATI, Computer-assisted telephone interviewing and CAPI,Computer-assisted personal interviewing techniques are really useful in terms of speed. The results and the quality parameters have to be analysed carefully before passing to the next phase. This monitoring can be systematically done by tallying the same phenomenon with other sources at the aggregate level.
  5. Dissemination is more than the mere release of the results and statistical products such as press releases, electronic dissemination on the Internet or hard-copy publication, to customers. It may include publications related to the topic with more details or analytical content, or may target specific user groups. It includes the generation of additional results for specific user requests such as statistical services. This means that consequently, microdata or the final sets of data have to be stored and well documented for a considerable period.
  6. An evaluation of the whole process is necessary to identify and make improvements in efficiency and quality of the process launched by the statistical producer; this helps for the next programming exercise.

Sometimes statistical producers can make ad hoc surveys but this is not recommended in the case of official statistics. The methodological information should be used in most of the surveys to obtain relevant results.

Another data life-cycle object model for statistical information systems was developed by the Statistical Office of the European Communities, Eurostat in 2003.

A proposal for a new generic statistical business process model was submitted in 2007 by Statistics New Zealand and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Secretariat to a joint UNECE/Eurostat/OECD work session on statistical metadata and is already used by several official statistical agencies even if it is still being developed. The aim of the generic model is to provide a better basis for the production process, to make it more complete and detailed than the previous model.

Data revision

Even after they have been published, official statistics are often revised. Policy-makers may need preliminary statistics quickly for decision-making purposes, but eventually it is important to publish the best available information, so official statistics are often published in several 'vintages'. The first available version of the data is called real-time data, and subsequent corrected data are called revised data.

In order to understand the accuracy of economic data and the possible impact of data errors on macroeconomic decision-making, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has published a dataset that records both initial real-time data estimates, and subsequent data revisions, for a large number of macroeconomic series. A similar dataset for Europe has been developed by the Euro-Area Business Cycle Network.

Collection process

There are three main ways to collect data, by surveys, registers and censuses.

Statistical survey or sample survey

A statistical survey or a sample survey is an investigation about the characteristics of a phenomenon by means of collecting data from a sample of the population and estimating their characteristics through the systematic use of statistical methodology.

·

    • The main advantage is the direct control over data content and the possibility to ask oriented questions. Another advantage is the rapidity of process and publication that is possible with computing techniques like CAPI or CATI.
    • A disadvantage is the high cost and the variable quality of data collected when non-response can cause biases or when respondents are not able or willing to give correct answers.

There are various survey methods that can be used such as direct interviewing, telephone, mail, online surveys. The respondents of surveys can be called primary respondents that correspond to individual, households and companies.

Register

A register is a database that is updated continuously for a specific purpose and from which statistics can be collected and produced. It contains information on a complete group of units.

·

    • An advantage is the total coverage even if collecting and processing represent low cost. It allows producing more detailed statistics than using surveys. Different registers can be combined and linked together on the basis of defined keys (personal identification codes, business identification codes, address codes etc.). Moreover, individual administrative registers are usually of high quality and very detailed.
    • A disadvantage is the possible under-coverage that can be the case if the incentive or the cultural tradition of registering events and changes are weak, if the classification principles of the register are not clearly defined or if the classifications do not correspond to the needs of statistical production to be derived from them.

There are different types of registers:

Administrative registers or records can help the NSI in collecting data. Using the existing administrative data for statistical production may be approved by the public because it can be seen as a cost efficient method; individuals and enterprises are less harassed by a response burden; data security is better as fewer people handle it and data have an electronic format.

Private registers such as registers operated by insurance companies and employer organizations can also be used in the production process of official statistics, providing there is an agreement or legislation on this.

Statistical registers are frequently based on combined data from different administrative registers or other data sources.

→For businesses, it is often legally indispensable to be registered in their country to a business register which is a system that makes business information collection easier.

→It is possible to find agricultural registers and registers of dwellings.

Census

Census is the complete enumeration of a population or groups at a point in time with respect to well-defined characteristics (population, production). Censuses are not subject to an updating process contrary to registers. The information has to be collected at a reference period. The census should be taken at regular intervals in order to have comparable information available. Therefore, most of the time a census is conducted every 5 or 10 years. The data is collected through questionnaires that are either mailed to respondents or completed by an enumerator visiting respondents. It can also be done today by the Internet or by automated telephone interviewing.

·

    • An advantage is for small areas or sub-units census may be the only information source on social, demographic or economic characteristics. Often, census results provide a basis for sampling frames used in forthcoming surveys.
    • The major disadvantages of censuses are the usually high costs of their planning and implementation. Also, different understandings or interpretations of the terminology used in census questionnaires can be a problem.

In 2005, the United Nations Economic and Social Council adopted a resolution urging: "Member States to carry out a population and housing census and to disseminate census results as an essential source of information for small area, national, regional and international planning and development; and to provide census results to national stakeholders as well as the United Nations and other appropriate intergovernmental organizations to assist in studies on population, environment, and socio-economic development issues and programs".

Even though different types of data collection exist, the best estimates are based on a combination of different sources providing the strengths and reducing the weakness of each individual source.

Official Statistics presentation

Official statistics can be presented in different ways. Analytical texts and tables are the most traditional ways. Graphs and charts summarize data highlighting information content visually. They can be extremely effective in expressing key results, or illustrating a presentation. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Graphs and charts usually have a heading describing the topic.

There are different types of graphic but usually the data determine the type that is going to be used.

  • To illustrate changes over time, a line graph would be recommended. This is usually used to display variables whose values represent a regular progression.

Stacked bar chart showing the sectoral contribution to total business services growth, 2001-2005 for members of UNECE.

  • For categorical data, it is better to use a bar graph either vertical or horizontal. They are often used to represent percentages and rates and also to compare countries, groups or illustrate changes over time. The same variable can be plotted against itself for two groups. An example of this is the age pyramid.
  • Pie chart can be used to represent share of 100 per cent. Pie charts highlight the topic well only when there are few segments.
  • Stacked bar charts, whether vertical or horizontal, are used to compare compositions across categories. They can be used to compare percentage composition and are most effective for categories that add up to 100 per cent, which make a full stacked bar chart. Their use is usually restricted to a small number of categories.
  • Tables are a complement to related texts and support the analysis. They help to minimize numbers in the description and also eliminate the need to discuss small variables that are not essential. Tables rank data by order or other hierarchies to make the numbers easily understandable. They usually show the figures from the highest to the lowest.
  • Another type of visual presentation of statistical information is thematic map. They can be used to illustrate differences or similarities between geographical areas, regions or countries. The most common statistical map that is used is called the choropleth map where different shades of a colour are used to highlight contrasts between regions; darker colour means a greater statistical value. This type of map is best used for ratio data but for other data, proportional or graduated symbol maps, such as circles, are preferred. The size of the symbol increases in proportion to the value of the observed object.

Release

Official statistics are part of our everyday life. They are everywhere: in newspapers, on television and radio, in presentations and discussions. For most citizens, the media provide their only exposure to official statistics. Television is the primary news source for citizens in industrialized countries, even if radio and newspapers still play an important role in the dissemination of statistical information. On the other hand newspapers and specialized economic and social magazines can provide more detailed coverage of statistical releases as the information on a specific theme can be quite extensive. Official statistics provides us with important information on the situation and the development trends in our society.

Users can gather information making use of the services of the National Statistical Offices. They can easily find it on the agency's website. The development of computing technologies and the Internet has enabled users - businesses, educational institutions and households among others- to have access to statistical information. The Internet has become an important tool for statistical producers to disseminate their data and information. People are able to access information online. The supply of information from statistical agencies has increased. Today the advanced agencies provide the information on their websites in an understandable way, often categorized for different groups of users. Several glossaries have been set up by different organizations or statistical offices to provide more information and definitions in the field of statistics and consequently official statistics.

Quality criteria to be respected

The quality criteria of a national statistical office are the following: relevance, impartiality, dissemination, independence, transparency, confidentiality, international standards. There principles apply not only to the NSO but to all producers of official statistics. Therefore, not every figure reported by a public body should be considered as official statistics, but those produced and disseminated according to the principles. Adherence to these principles will enhance the credibility of the NSO and other official statistical producers and build public trust in the reliability of the information and results that are produced.

Relevance

Relevance is the first and most important principles to be respected for national statistical offices. When releasing information, data and official statistics should be relevant in order to fulfil the needs of users as well as both public and private sector decision makers. Production of official statistics is relevant if it corresponds to different user needs like public, governments, businesses, research community, educational institutions, NGOs and international organizations or if it satisfies basic information in each area and citizen's right to information.

Impartiality

Once the survey has been made, the NSO checks the quality of the results and then they have to be disseminated no matter what impact they can have on some users, whether good or bad. All should accept the results released by the NSO as authoritative. Users need to perceive the results as unbiased representation of relevant aspects of the society. Moreover, the impartiality principle implies the fact that NSOs have to use understandable terminology for statistics' dissemination, questionnaires and material published so that everyone can have access to their information.

Dissemination

In order to maximize dissemination, statistics should be presented in a way that facilitates proper interpretation and meaningful comparisons. To reach the general public and non-expert users when disseminating, NSOs have to add explanatory comments to explain the significance of the results released and make analytical comments when necessary. There is a need to identify clearly what the preliminary, final and revised results are, in order to avoid confusion for users. All results of official statistics have to be publicly accessible. There are no results that should be characterized as official and for the exclusive use of the government. Moreover they should be disseminated simultaneously.

Independence

Users can be consulted by NSOs but the decisions should be made by statistical bodies. Information and activities of producers of official statistics should be independent of political control. Moreover, NSOs have to be free of any political interference that could influence their work and thus, the results. They should not make any political advice or policy-perspective comments on the results released at anytime, even at press conferences or in interviews with the media.

Transparency

The need for transparency is essential for NSOs to gain the trust of the public. They have to expose to the public the methods they use to produce official statistics, and be accountable for all the decisions they take and the results they publish. Also, statistical producers should warn users of certain interpretations and false conclusions even if they try to be as precise as possible. Furthermore, the quality of the accurate and timely results must be assessed prior to release. But if errors in the results occur before or after the data revision, they should be directly corrected and information should be disseminated to the users at the earliest possible time. Producers of official statistics have to set analytical systems in order to change or improve their activities and methods.

Confidentiality

All data collected by the national statistical office must protect the privacy of individual respondents, whether persons or businesses. But on the contrary, government units such as institutions cannot invoke statistical confidentiality. All respondents have to be informed about the purpose and legal basis of the survey and especially about the confidentiality measures. The statistical office should not release any information that could identify an individual or group without prior consent. After data collection, replies should go back directly to the statistical producer, without involving any intermediary. Data processing implies that filled-in paper and electronic form with full names should be destroyed.

International standards

The use of international standards at the national level aims to improve international comparability for national users and facilitate decision-making, especially when controversial. Moreover, the overall structure, including concepts and definitions, should follow internationally accepted standards, guidelines or good practices. International recommendations and standards for statistical methods approved by many countries provide them with a common basis like the two standards of the International Monetary Fund, IMF, SDDS for Special Data Dissemination Standards and GDDS for General Data Dissemination System. Their aim is to guide countries in the dissemination of their economic and financial data to the public. One approved, these standards have to be observed by all producers of official statistics and not only by the NSO.