Attitude to the Census (Panel Study)

Attitude of the Federal German population and census critics to the
census on 31. May 1987.

Summary of three data sets archived and described under ZA Study Nos.
1588 to 1590.

Topics: 1. From the first wave of 1987: political interest;
satisfaction with democracy in the Federal Republic; feeling of
political effectiveness and degree of representation by politicians and
parties; orientation of government policies on special interests or
public welfare; attitude to the census; intent of members of household
and respondent to participate; willingness to participate after notice
of threat of fine; filling out the survey form oneself or by another
person in household; conversations about the census in social
surroundings and time of last conversation; attitude to the census in
circle of friends and acquaintances as well as their willingness to
participate; importance of political attitudes in social surroundings
and visibility of one´s own views; knowledge about contents of the
census survey (scale); assumed difficulty in filling out survey form;
preference for filling out the form in the presence of the canvasser or
alone; misgivings about canvasser in residence; difficulties in
carrying out official matters; frequency of contact and ability to
establish contacts; trust in institutions and organizations;
self-assessment on a left-right continuum; assumed position of the
majority of the population on a left-right continuum; postmaterialism;
sympathy scale for political parties; frequency of use of television
news broadcasts as well as the local part and political part of a daily
newspaper; time of last noticed media reports about the census and
content tendency of these programs; assumed attitude of the population
to the census; living together with a partner and his attitude to the
census; assumed participation of partner in the census; response or
boycott conduct in the census survey; attitude to government
statistics; attitude to punishment of census boycotters and preferred
governmental behavior regarding refusal; personal fears regarding
misuse of personal census data; trust in observance of data protection;
sympathies regarding social movements as well as personal membership;
party preference; perceived fears and their causes; attitude to
technology; attitude to computers and scientific innovations; attitude
to government dealing with data; assessment of census refusers as
system opponents; attitude to storage of personal data; importance of
data protection and trust in observance of the data protection
regulation; judgement on quality of data protection; earlier
participation in a survey and type of survey; attitude to selected
infringements and crimes as well as other illegal actions (scale);
religiousness; union membership; self-assessment of social class;
possession of a telephone; willingness to participate in a
re-interview.

The following additional questions were posed to persons with strong
or very strong political interest: demographic information on circle of
close friends (ego-centered network); agreement with respondent
regarding party preference and attitude to the census; willingness of
friends to participate in the census; familiarity of friends among each
other; personal willingness to participate in selected political forms
of protest (scale); personal fears regarding misuse of personal data by
selected institutions and public offices.

Demography: month of birth; year of birth; sex; marital status; number
of children; ages of children (classified); frequency of church
attendance; school education; vocational training; occupation;
occupational position; employment; monthly net income of respondent and
household altogether; number of persons contributing to household
income; size of household; position of respondent in household;
characteristics of head of household; number of persons eligible to
vote in household; persons in household who do not have German
citizenship; self-assessment of social class; union membership of
respondent and other members of household; possession of a telephone.

Interviewer rating: presence of third persons during interview and
person desiring this presence; intervention of others in interview and
person introducing the intervention; attitude to the census of persons
additionally present during interview; presence of further persons in
other rooms; willingness to cooperate and reliability of respondent.

Also encoded was: length of interview; date of interview;
identification of interviewer; sex of interviewer; age of interviewer.

2. From the second wave of 1987: political interest; attitude to the
census; conversations about the census in social surroundings and
topics discussed; attitude to the census in circle of friends and
acquaintances; perceived attitude of the population to the census; time
of personal decision making on the census; changes in attitude to the
census; personally knowing the canvasser; manner of receipt of
questionnaire; conversation contact with canvasser at door of building
or in residence; comments of canvasser about his attitude to the census
and content tendency of these comments; questions of canvasser about
residents of a neighbor residence; questionnaire filled out by
canvasser or oneself; help or explanations of canvasser in filling out
the form; support requested or offered by canvasser; length of stay of
canvasser in household; filling out questionnaire individually or
information on entire household from a single person; length of filling
out the form; response or boycott conduct in the survey; manner of
returning questionnaire; knowledge about census questions before start
of the survey; judgement on clarity of survey form; census questions
that caused difficulties or were answered reluctantly; additional
expected questions; attitude to question program of the census and
personal changes of attitude after taking notice of questionnaire
content; participation in boycott initiatives and events against the
census; intensity of one´s own boycott inclination; extent to which
informed about defense against fines; receipt of a written demand to
fill out the questionnaire; co-ordinated conduct of entire household
regarding the census; boycott inclination in circle of friends and
acquaintances; topics of noticed media reports about the census and
content tendency of these programs; attitude to use of canvassers;
assessment and importance of trustworthiness of canvasser; influence on
one´s own attitude to the census by incidents of use of violence
against canvassers that have become known; attitude to a supposed
connection of calls for boycott and acceptance of such violent actions;
expectations regarding punishment of boycotters and knowledge cases of
refusal prosecuted; attitude to punishment of census boycotters as well
as calls for boycott; attitude to obligation to provide information in
the census; attitude to census boycott as protest against the state;
census participation as democratic duty; census as government
demonstration of power; criticism of manner of conducting the census;
attitude to government statistics; personal fears regarding misuse of
personal census data; trust in observance of data protection; attitude
to selected illegal actions and the census boycott; party preference.

Demography: month of birth; year of birth; sex; religious
denomination; school education; employment; possession of a telephone.

Interviewer rating: presence of third persons during interview and
person desiring this presence; intervention of others in interview and
person introducing this intervention; attitude to the census of
additional persons present during interview; presence of further
persons in other rooms; willingness to cooperate and reliability of
respondent.

Also encoded was: length of interview; date of interview;
identification of interviewer; sex of interviewer; age of interviewer.

3. From the third wave of 1987/1988: political interest; satisfaction
with democracy in the Federal Republic; orientation of the government
on special interests or public welfare; perceived protection of civil
rights and liberties by the political system and the current Federal
Government; satisfaction with work of the Federal Government; attitude
to the census; receipt of a written demand to fill out the
questionnaire; intent to participate in the census before start of the
census; personal willingness to participate in the census even with
voluntary participation; assumed amount of non-participation in the
census; attitude to the census in circle of friends and acquaintances;
conversations about the census in social surroundings after conclusion
of the survey and time of last conversation; knowledge about contents
of the census survey; additional expected questions; questions that
were answered reluctantly; response or boycott conduct in the survey;
attitude to government statistics; attitude to punishment of census
boycotters and knowledge of cases of refusal; assumed willingness of
the population to participate as well as honesty of responses given
voluntary participation in the census; voluntary provision of selected
personal data; preference for census or provision of data already
currently available to public offices; assumed benefit or harm from
discussion about the census in the media and reasons for this
assessment; attitude to earlier boycott calls and at the time of
survey; judgement on outcome of the boycott movement; attitude to
selected arguments for and against the census; benefit of a census;
attitude to obligation to provide information; census boycott as
protest against the state; census participation as democratic duty;
self-assessment on a left-right continuum; assumed position of the
majority of the population on a left-right continuum; understanding of
democracy and comparison of this right with reality in the Federal
Republic; party preference; harm to fundamental rights from measures by
authorities, perceived personally or by persons of social surroundings;
attitude to technology; perceived uncertainties in contact with
authorities and attitude regarding public offices; fears regarding
misuse of personal census data; trust in observance of data protection;
attitude to storage of personal data; importance of data protection and
assumed observance of data protection regulations; knowledge of cases
of misuse of data and source of information about such violations;
assumed willingness to participate in a future census; attitude to
opinion polls (scale); willingness to participate in a microcensus
survey; readiness to provide information from the private sphere to
friends, neighbors, statistical offices and in scientific surveys;
attitude to selected government statistics; willingness to respond in
order to make statistics possible; fear of misuse of data; fears
regarding misuse of personal data by selected institutions and public
offices (scale); attitude to selected illegal actions (scale);
religiousness (scale); attitude to matters of faith and the meaning of
life (scale); belief in supernatural, inexplicable events as well as
horoscopes and telepathy.

Demography: month of birth; year of birth; sex; religious
denomination; school education; employment; college in vicinity of
place of residence; students in residential area; possession of a
telephone.

Interviewer rating: presence of third persons during interview and
person desiring this presence; intervention of others in interview and
person introducing this intervention; attitude to the census of
additional persons present during interview; presence of further
persons in other rooms; willingness to cooperate and reliability of
respondent.

Also encoded was: length of interview; date of interview;
identification of interviewer; sex of interviewer; age of interviewer.