Trust in Politics - Attitudes towards Reforms in the Social Welfare State

Attitudes towards the welfare state and welfare state reforms. Political trust. Attitude to democracy.

Topics: Assessment of the general and personal economic situation; political interest; party preference (Sunday question, second vote); voting behaviour in the last Bundestag election; political knowledge: importance of first and second vote; preferences for more or less government spending in selected areas; responsibility of the state in selected areas; options for financing social security; satisfaction with individual areas of social security; assessment of one´s own safeguarding through social systems; concept of reform (open naming); assessment of the direction of reform and personal advantages or disadvantages (health system, pension system, family policy); assessment of the importance of individual reform principles; assessment of the implementation of these principles in current reforms; knowledge of one´s own health insurance share; assessment of the level of benefits provided by statutory health insurance; assessment of reform options in health policy; preferences for financing the health care system; knowledge of the level of the federal subsidy to the statutory pension insurance institutions; assessment of the pension level; assessment of reform options in pension policy; preferences for the future financing of the statutory pension insurance; knowledge of parental benefits; assessment of the extent of benefits for families with children; assessment of reform options in family policy; orientations towards childcare, family and work; assessment of concrete reforms (practice fee, parental allowance, pension at 67); contact with social policy institutions; receipt of benefits from these institutions; assessment of these institutions as fair and equitable; trust or no trust (split: mistrust) in these institutions; rating of the performance of these institutions; political trust (Bundestag, Federal Government, Chancellor, relevant ministers, political parties, Federal Constitutional Court, politicians); trust in these persons and institutions in relation to the reform of the welfare state; rrating of the performance of the above-mentioned political institutions; trust in a reform effect of the pension at 67 (general assessment, statement of various actors); left-right self-rating; personal relevance of left and right (open naming); value orientations; solidarity with fellow human beings; personal belonging to a disadvantaged or preferred population group; justice of the social order; justice orientations; assessment of the justice of the pension system, of the health care system; disadvantaged groups in the pension system and in the health care system; assessment of principles of the social security system in Germany as just or unjust; assessment of the entitlement to benefits; satisfaction with democracy; assessment of democracy in general and democracy in Germany as the best form of government; party affiliation and identification; assessment of politics as complicated; more good than bad in the GDR; socialism as a good idea; presumed position of the parties on the responsibility of the state or each individual citizen in the reform of the welfare state; problem-solving competence of the parties (health care, pensions, family policy); trust in fellow human beings; optimism about one´s own future; assessment of one´s personal state of health; number of private meetings with friends, relatives or colleagues at work.

Demography: sex; age (year of birth); interview in East or West Germany, place of residence of tehe respondent and his parents before 1990; size of household; marital status; cohabitation with a partner; number of children and age of children; school leaving certificate; own income and level of income; net household income; gainful employment; fear of unemployment; former gainful employment; unemployment or year of retirement from employment; length of unemployment; unemployment of household members; employment in the public sector; job title and position; denomination; frequency of church attendance; receipt of state benefits; trade union membership; self-assessment of social stratum; type of health insurance; additional private health insurance; member of statutory pension insurance; type of financial safeguarding in old age.

Additionally coded was: state; duration of interview; weight.