European Elections 1989: Pre-Election Survey

The main survey focus of this Eurobarometer is on: 1. General satisfaction and media usage 2. Cancer 3. Nuclear energy and radioactivity 4. Significance of research 5. European domestic market 6. Satellite TV 7. EC agricultural policy and attitude to the EC 8. Test of natural science knowledge 9. Political attitude and self-classification Topics: 1. Eligibility to vote at place of residence; general contentment with life; satisfaction with democracy; personal opinion leadership; frequency of political discussions; postmaterialism; media usage; interest and self-assessment of extent to which informed in selected areas; attitude to astrology; frequency of reading scientific magazines; frequency of attendance at technical as well as natural history museums and zoos; acceptance of technology and attitude to science and research (scale). 2. Knowledge about the European program to combat cancer as well asthe ´European Code against Cancer´; significance of selected cancerpreventive measures and personal behavior to prevent cancer; use ofalcohol; consumption of fruit juice, potatoes, fresh vegetables andcanned vegetables; smoking habits; use of cigarettes; changes of one´sown smoking habits; obstacles to quitting smoking; smokers in one´scircle of friends; personal fear of getting cancer. 3. Judgement on the danger of radioactivity in selected situations;assessment of problems with nuclear energy (scale); extent to whichinformed about radioactivity in one´s country and trust in thisinformation; reasons for dissatisfaction with information from thisarea; most trustworthy institutions for information aboutradioactivity; most important character traits of trustworthy sourcesof information. 4. Importance of selected research areas; comparison of technicalstate of development in Europe with that in the USA and Japan;knowledge of Europe-wide research activities; comparison of researchactivities at national level with Europe-wide research; importance ofselected natural science research areas at European level. 5. Assessment of advantages and disadvantages from realization of theEuropean domestic market (scale); attitude to the European domesticmarket and development of a common European policy in selectedpolitical departments; attitude to further integration of Europe inselected areas; preference for completion of the European domesticmarket or further rapproachment of Western and Eastern Europe;evaluation of an agreement on fundamental social rights for the entireEC; knowledge of selected rights of citizens of the EC. 6. Interest in reception of satellite TV programs and foreign languageTV broadcasters; interest in acquisition of equipment to receivesatellite programs; preferred program offering of a Europe-widetelevision yet to be organized; attitude to commercial television;duration of advertising per hour that can still be tolerated. 7. Judgement on European agricultural policy; advantages of farmers,consumers or taxpayers of the country from this agricultural policy;political interest and interest in policies of the EC; significance ofthe EC for the future of one´s own country; knowledge and judgement onthe EC Commission; attitude to Western European unification and ECmembership of one´s country; assessment of advantages for the countryfrom EC membership; regret of a failure of the EC; feeling as European;most important characteristics of a ´Europe of the citizens´;importance of political questions and problems; issue competence of theparties; knowledge and judgement on the European Parliament; assessmentof the significance of the European Parliament and desiredstrengthening of the role of this parliament; intent to participate inthe next European Election and party preference; assessment of theeligibility of the individual parties; knowledge of candidatescampaigning for a seat in the European Parliament; attitude to aEuropean Government; knowledge about the powers of the EuropeanParliament; attitude to a European or national cooperation of theEuropean Parliamentarians. 8. Test of natural science knowledge; descent of man from thevertebrates; astronomical knowledge; knowledge of scientific researchmethods; understanding of scientific statements with probabilitycharacter; concepts of a ´scientific study´; definition of ´scientificresearch´. 9. Concept of ´violence´ (semantic differential); willingness toparticipate in selected forms of political protest and demonstrations;attitude to use of government force against protesting demonstratorsand strikers; attitude to social change. Demography: self-assessment on a left-right continuum; partyallegiance; marital status; age at end of education; party preference;behavior at the polls in the last Federal Parliament election; sex;age; size of household; number of children in household; monthlyhousehold income; occupational position; employment in the civilservice or private enterprise (company sector); company size;supervisor status; party affiliation; union membership; position inhousehold; occupation of head of household; self-assessment of socialclass; residential status; degree of urbanization; religiousdenomination; frequency of church attendance; religiousness; city size;region. Indices: postmaterialism; political orientation; EC support; cognitiveand political mobility; class; attitude to Europe; living close to aborder; media usage. Also encoded were: date of interview; time of interview; length ofinterview; presence of other persons; willingness of respondent tocooperate. In the Federal Republic of Germany the following questions were alsoposed: interest in Europe 1992 and self-assessment of extent to whichinformed about EC-policies as well as about political events in theFederal Republic; most important areas of interest in Europeanpolitics; assessment of the influence of the European domestic marketon personal and occupational circumstances; knowledge and evaluation ofinformation material about the European Community.