Saarland Election Investigation 1975 (Panel: Preliminary Investigation, May 1973)

Judgement on politicians, parties, government and opposition on the
occasion of the state parliament election in the Saarland.

Topics: Political interest and political knowledge; sources of
political information and self-assessment of extent to which informed;
political conversations in one´s family and in one´s circle of friends;
reference groups; behavior at the polls in the last Federal Parliament
election and state parliament election; constancy of behavior at the
polls since 1949; change of party sympathy since the last election;
party preference (list procedure and rank order procedure); party one
cannot vote for; party preference of family and friends; assumed
openness of friends and colleagues in political conversations; sympathy
scale for the parties and the most important federal politicians and
state politicians; knowledge about the party affiliation of the prime
minister; attitude to the resignation of Barzel as chairman of the
CDU/CSU Federal Parliament faction; knowledge about the governing
parties in the Saarland; preferred government coalition and attitude to
a return of the FDP into the state parlament; satisfaction with the
state government and evaluation of achievements; satisfaction with the
opposition; assessment of the importance of political problems; most
important tasks of the state government; issue ability of the parties;
political preferences in the area of occupational and school training;
attitude to the zero fare; judgement on the economic situation of the
FRG and one´s own economic situation; assumed economic development in
the future; satisfaction with democracy in the FRG; attitude to
political participation and to citizen initiatives; understanding of
democracy and assessment of the political possibilities to influence of
the individual as well as of special interest groups; desired influence
of the CSU on the CDU; attitude to the goals of the young socialists
and expected influence on the policies of the SPD; self-assessment of
social class; commuter; satisfaction with living conditions in the
Saarland; local residency; membership in a trade union or party;
self-assessment on the left-right continuum.

Demography: age; sex; marital status; number of children; ages of
children (classified); religious denomination; religiousness; school
education; occupation; employment; household income; size of household;
composition of household; head of household; economic area; social
origins.

Interviewer rating: willingness of respondent to cooperate; number of
contact attempts; length of interview; type of city.