Political Attitudes, Political Participation and Voting Behavior in Reunified Germany 1994

Political attitudes and political participation in united Germany.

Cumulated data set from the data sets of two largely identical
cross-section surveys at two different survey times in East and West
Germany.

Topics: The questions listed below were posed in at least one survey:
judgment on current general economic situation as well as economic
situation in previous year; expected economic situation; personal
economic situation; satisfaction with democracy; interest in politics;
certainty of one´s own intent to participate in the election and one´s
voting decision; voting behavior in previous Federal Parliament
elections; manner of voting as absentee ballot or polling station; same
voting decision after knowledge about results of election; party
preference (Sunday question, second vote); most important reasons for
dissatisfaction with the parties; coalition preference; responsivity:
judgment on party politicians and their work as well as their relation
with citizens (scale); power orientation of political parties;
differences between the parties; too much influence of parties in
society; corruption of parties and politicians; necessity of
professional politicians; most important problems of the country; issue
relevance and issue ability of the parties; attitude towards Politics
and Society (scale: complexity of politics, the right to strike,
proximity of politicians to citizens, possibilities of citizens to
influence parties and government (efficacy), understanding of
democracy); sympathy scale for CDU, CSU, SPD, FDP, Alliance 90/the
Greens, Republicans and PDS; postmaterialism (Inglehart index); trust
in institutions: trust in Federal Parliament, the Federal
Constitutional Court, Federal Government, the judiciary, the police,
administration, churches, parties, the Federal German Armed Forces;
Chancellor preference; own political participation; self-classification
on a left-right continuum; most important group or representation of
interests; feeling of being represented in trade unions, employer´s
federations, environmental protection groups and individual churches;
judgment on parties in their proximity to trade unions, employer´s
federations, environmental protection groups and individual churches;
assessment of the parties in their proximity to the above
organizations; media usage: reading local, regional and national daily
newspapers; use of political broadcasts on television; assessment of
fairness of the social system in the Federal Republic; own belonging to
a disadvantaged or preferred population group in society;
characterization of East Germans and West Germans (self-image,
interpersonal perception, semantic differential); frequency of stay in
the other part of Germany after unification; extremism scale: national
pride, desired nationalization for private businesses, public good
before special interests, American imperialism as danger to world
peace, dictatorship as better type of state, good sides of National
Socialism, exploitation of workers and third-world countries, Hitler
and extermination of the Jews, foreign infiltration of the Federal
Republic, GDR with more positive sides, multi-national marriages,
influence of Jews too great, socialism as good idea, Jews as different
and understanding for attacks on homes for applicants for political
asylum.

Demography: sex; year of birth (age); religious denomination;
frequency of church attendance; church ties of parental home; education
and school degree; employment; involuntary change of job or
unemployment since 1990; retirement from professional life since
1990; employment in the civil service; occupational status; marital
status; characteristics of head of household; state of residence;
length of residence in state; memberships in citizen initiative, party,
professional organization or trade union; party inclination;
significance of party inclination (scale); party identification; party
inclination regarding western parties before the turning point (only
posed in the East); number of persons contributing to the household
income; net household income; self-assessment of social class and
social class of parental home (social mobility); size of household;
number of persons 16 years old and older in household.

Additionally coded: Date of interview of the first to third visit;
identification of interviewer; size of municipality; start of
interview; end of interview; number of contact attempts; east-west
weight, weighting factors.