Page 313 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 2

STS496 Alphonse L.M.
variety of methods, and the results of studies on the same subject were very
often not comparable.
The 19th century was a period of rapid political, economic and social
change. The transformation of authoritarian regimes into liberal democracies
changed the nature of official statistics. They were no longer instruments for
the government for policy formulation, but became means of verification of
governmental compliance with policies by parliament, the electorate and
ultimately by the population at large. In the first half of the 19th national
statistical commissions, bringing together independent scholars and senior
civil servants, were established, which led to the creation of statistical units in
the ministries and eventually national statistical offices. The creation of
statistical societies (the Royal Statistical Society of London, 1834 and the
American Statistical Association, 1839) promoted the standardisation of
methods and procedures. These efforts culminated in a series of International
Statistical Conferences between 1853 and 1874, organised by Adolph
Quetelet. In these conferences international standards for a wide range of
statistics (census and civil registration methodology, classification of causes of
death, transport statistics, etc.) were established. The International Statistical
Institute (ISI) was created in 1885 in London. In USA early attempts were made
to measure “public opinion”.
The 20th century saw important developments in statistical theory and
techniques, and the establishment of the principles of official statistics. In 1991
the Fundamental Principals of Official Statistics were approved by the
Conference of European Statisticians. They established the principles
regulating the relations between Governments and official statisticians, to
ensure that the citizens are provided with valid, reliable and timely information
to enable the functioning of a democratic society for common wellbeing and
prosperity. See https://unstats.un.org/unsd/dnss/gp/fundprinciples.aspx. In
1992 they were adopted by the United Nations Economic Commission for
Europe (UNECE).and in 1994 they were endorsed by the Statistical Commission
of the United Nations and on 29 January 2014 by the General Assembly of the
United Nations.

3. The Codes of Conduct
3.1 Introduction
National, international, official and voluntary statistical organisations have
issued codes of conduct. In this paper the codes of selected voluntary national
and international professional statistical organisations will be considered. The
codes of conduct of two public opinion and market research organisations the
American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR)
(https://www.aapor.org/) and the European Society for Opinion and Market
Research (ESOMAR) (https://www.esomar.org/) will be reviewed . They are

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