Monitoring Democracy in Baden-Wuerttemberg 2016/2017: Citizens and Democracy in Baden-Wuerttemberg

The study on citizens and democracy in Baden-Wuerttemberg was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs on behalf of the Mannheim Center for European Social Research. During the survey period 01.11.2016 to 14.01.2017, the German-speaking resident population of Baden-Wuerttemberg aged 15 and older was surveyed in telephone interviews (CATI) on the following topics: social and political participation, political and social orientations, attitudes toward democracy, and information and communication behavior (media and political conversations). Respondents were selected by a multi-stage random sample from the ADM selection frame for landline numbers. The main sample was supplemented by an additional sample (quota sample) comprising only formally less educated persons with at most an intermediate level of education (Mittlere Reife).<br>Topics: 1. Social and political participation: attachment to Germany, Europe, and the federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg; activity in the past twelve months in selected clubs and organizations (e.g., recreational club, sports club or group, cultural or artistic association, charity or charitable organization, etc.); membership in an informal group of friends and acquaintances; frequency of neighborhood contacts (neighborhood visits, neighborhood help); opportunities used for political participation in Baden-Wuerttemberg in the last twelve months (contact with a politician, letter to the editor of a newspaper in Baden-Wuerttemberg, participation in a petition drive, demonstration or organized form of civic participation, Internet publication on political or social issues in Baden-Wuerttemberg, mobilization of others via the Internet).

2. Political and social orientations: general personal trust; institutional trust (political parties in Germany, Bundestag, national news media in Germany, political parties in Baden-Wuerttemberg, state parliament of Baden-Wuerttemberg, local and regional news media in Baden-Wuerttemberg); interest in politics; postmaterialism index (most important and second most important goal); left-right self-ranking; political efficacy (efficacy internal and external: Politics too complicated, ease of forming opinions on political issues, politicians only interested in votes, politicians don´t care what people think); party affiliation and party identification; attitudes toward immigration to Germany; attitudes toward European unification; fair share of standard of living compared with others in Germany; anxiety regarding refugee immigration.

3. Attitudes toward democracy: satisfaction with the work of the state government in Baden-Wuerttemberg, the prime minister of Baden-Wuerttemberg, the federal government and the chancellor, and with the work of the police and the courts in Germany; satisfaction with democracy in Baden-Wuerttemberg and in Germany; civic virtues (supporting people who are worse off, voting, obeying the law, forming one´s own opinion, association activity, being politically active, actively helping to shape Baden-Wuerttemberg); understanding of democracy (representative or direct democracy); opinion on protection of minority rights; populism (interest groups and general welfare, right to demonstrate, dictatorship the better form of government under certain circumstances, abandonment of opposition, party bickering, politics makes many problems unnecessarily complicated, politicians should act, citizens instead of parties, politicians have no idea, experts should decide, voting makes no difference); racism (dangerous alienation by foreigners, foreigners take advantage of the welfare state, foreigners should marry among themselves, German achievements, strong national feeling, understanding for attacks on asylum seekers´ homes, people from foreign cultures can never be real Germans even with a German passport); voting intention in the next federal election (Sunday question) and party preference; voting intention in the next state election in Baden-Wuerttemberg (Sunday question) and party preference; voting behavior in the last state election in 2016 (recall);

4. Information and communication behavior (media and political conversations): frequency of reception of political news; most important source of information about political events; most important source of information: title, station, page, interlocutor (relationship); use of most important source of information online or offline; second most important source of information about political events; second most important source of information: title, station, page, interlocutor (relationship); use of second most important source of information online or offline; frequency of political conversations in the family, with friends and acquaintances and with unknown persons.

Demography: sex; year of birth; age categorized; age in years; length of residence in Baden-Württemberg; citizenship; country of birth (in Germany, in the EU, outside the EU); parents´ migration background; religious denomination; frequency of churchgoing; education; general school leaving certificate and university degree; occupation; occupational group and occupational position of current or last job; self-classification of stratum membership; self-classification within the middle class; household size; number of persons in the household aged 15 and over; household net income; willingness to be interviewed again.

Additionally coded were: Respondent ID; weighting factors; survey split (main sample, additional sample); interview date; BIK place size; political place size; federal state (Baden-Wuerttemberg); administrative district; county code; time stamps in seconds.