Election Study 1987 (Panel Study)

Judgement on parties and politicians in view of the Federal Parliament
election in January 1987.

Topics: judgement on current economic situation in the Federal
Republic as well as assessment of further economic development;
political interest; intent to participate in the election; party
preference (ballot procedure, first and second votes as well as rank
order procedure); certainty of personal voting decision; behavior at
the polls in the last Federal Parliament election (question of memory);
satisfaction with achievement up to now of the CDU/CSU-FDP government,
the individual partners in this government and the achievements of the
SPD and the Greens in opposition (scales); sympathy scale for the
federal parties as well as selected top politicians; preferred federal
chancellor; judgement on positive and negative characteristics of the
parties as well as the chancellor candidates Rau and Kohl; judgement on
current personal economic situation as well as expected development in
a year; satisfaction with democracy in the Federal Republic; judgement
on the intensity of government care for the citizens; frequency of
political discussions about the impending Federal Parliament election
in one´s family as well as with friends and acquaintances; assessment
of the most active election campaign workers among the individual
parties; approval of the FDP as well as the Greens taking seats in the
new Federal Parliament; most important tasks and political goals in the
Federal Republic; issue competence of the parties; responsibility of
the employment offices to continue payment of wages during strikes;
attitude to expansion of further or shut-down of existing nuclear power
plants; attitude to peacekeeping, legalization of abortions, and the
equalisation of women in professional life; assumed position of the
parties as well as the Federal Government on these topics;
self-classification as well as classification of the parties on a
left-right continuum; attitude to the churches as well as the trade
unions having a right to a say in politics (scale); personal support
for the anti-nuclear power, the women´s as well as the peace movement;
judgement on economic recovery in the Federal Republic and the share of
the government in this development; assessment of the possibility of a
reactor accident in the Federal Republic with the gravest of
consequences; attitude to an absolute majority of one party in the next
Federal Parliament; preferred government coalition; preferred conduct
of SPD and the Greens given a hypothetical majority of votes; assumed
election winner and possibility of an absolute majority for the
CDU/CSU; judgement on the chances of the FDP as well as the Greens
again to obtain seats in the Federal Parliament; assessment of
political information by mass media; television and radio consumption;
frequency of reading daily newspapers; detailed information on the five
most important persons of trust; Information on the relationships of
these persons as well as the respondent’s relationship to these persons
(social network); party inclination of the named persons; frequency
of political discussions with these persons; involvement of the trust
persons in an anti-nuclear movement; knowledge of followers of the
anti-nuclear power movement in the further circle of acquaintance;
frequency of political discussions with these persons.

Demography: year of birth; month of birth; sex; marital status;
religious denomination; frequency of church attendance; school
education; occupational position; employment; respondent is head of
household; characteristics of head of household; party inclination;
party identification; union membership; number of persons in household
18 years old and older; characterization of residential surroundings
according to occupational groups.

Interviewer rating: city code; date of interview; place of
interview.