Self-Sustained Quality of Life Monitoring: The Philippine Social Weather Reports

In the Philippines, measurement of social indicators covering Qualityof Life and other social concerns has been institutionalized by means ofa unique Social Weather Reporting system. The Social Weather Reports arebased on a series of national surveys operated on a self-sustaining,syndicate-cum-omnibus basis by a private research institute whichoperates as an “enterprising non-profit.” The surveys began on asemestral basis in 1986 and have been run quarterly since 1992. Amongtheir regular topics are self-rated poverty, QOL gaining/losing andoptimism/pessimism, victimization by common crimes, satisfactionwith the performance of government institutions and officials, publicopinion on contemporaneous critical issues, and electoral prospects.Since the topics all deal with public issues, subscribers to the SocialWeather Reports are mostly from the public sector, plus some corporateand diplomatic institutions. Access of non-subscribers to the surveyfindings is on a delayed basis; all surveys are archived for publicuse. The most important factors behind the success of the Social WeatherReports have been their consistent focus on indicators of democracy andgovernance and their record in predicting the outcomes of the 1992,1995, and 1998 national elections in the Philippines.