In the fall of 2007 Professors Anthony Bertelli, David Lewis, and David Nixon launched the Survey on the Future of the Government Service. The survey included a variety of questions on the backgrounds, experiences, and political views of government executives. The survey was sent to the population of federal administrators and program managers in the various departments and agencies. In total, the survey was sent to 7,448 government executives, both career and appointed. The target population included cabinet secretaries, deputy, under-, and assistant secretaries, as well as independent agency heads, bureau chiefs, general counsels, and key deputies in the government bureaucracy. The survey was web-based and conducted with the help of the Princeton Survey Research Center (PSRC). The overall response rate from the original 7,448 names is 32 percent.

Survey Questions and Wording

Survey Instrument (pdf of screen shots)

Published Articles and Replication Datasets


Related Sites

revised 4jun2012