State Election in Hesse 2013

Evaluation of parties and politicians. Attitudes towards political issues.

Topics: Most important political issues in Hesse; intention to vote in the Federal Parliament Election and the state election; intended type of voting in the Federal Parliament Election and the state election (polling station or postal vote); party preference in the Federal Parliament Election; party preference in the state election (first and second vote); timing and certainty of one´s own voting decision; interest in the state election; importance of federal politics for one´s own voting decision at state level; voting behaviour in the last state election; coalition preference; attitude towards a coalition of CDU and FDP, of SPD and Greens, of CDU and SPD, of CDU and Greens, and of SPD, Greens and Left; sympathy scalometer for selected parties at federal and state level; satisfaction with the performance of the state government of CDU and FDP, the respective performance of CDU and FDP in the state government, the performance of SPD, Greens and Left in the opposition, and the performance of the federal government of CDU/CSU and FDP (scalometer); knowledge of the top candidates of CDU and SPD for the office of prime minister; sympathy scalometer for selected top politicians (Tarek Al-Wazir, Volker Bouffier, Jörg-Uwe Hahn, Angela Merkel, Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel, Peer Steinbrück and Janine Wissler); party most or second best; interest in politics; preference for Volker Bouffier or Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel as prime minister; Split A: comparison of the likeability, closeness to the people, expertise and better suitability for the federal state of the two top candidates (end of Split A); assessment of own economic situation, the economic situation of the federal state in general as well as in comparison with the other western German federal states; economic expectations for Hesse; Split B: Most competent party to solve economic problems in the state, in the area of job creation, social justice, school policy and education policy, family policy, transport policy as well as in the area of energy policy; opinion on the future viability of the state; most competent party to solve future problems of the state (end of split B); assessment of the work of prime minister Volker Bouffier; importance of the issues of the euro crisis and school policy in Hesse for one´s own voting decision in the state election; more important for the respondent in the state election: Government parties or the person of the prime minister; importance of Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel for the CDU´s performance in the state election or of Peer Steinbrück as SPD candidate for Chancellor for the SPD´s performance in the state election (helpful, detrimental or does not play a major role); political content or dissatisfaction with other parties as a presumed reason for voters for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Demography: age (classified); marital status; living with a partner; school education; completed higher education; completed vocational training; occupation; assessment of own job security; occupational status; household size; number of persons in the household aged 18 and over; trade union member in the household; religious denomination; frequency of churchgoing; party affiliation; party identification; number of telephone numbers in the household; sex; eligibility to vote in Hesse; city size.

Additionally coded were: Interview date; questionnaire number; weighting factor.

For various questions (politician profile and competences) a bifurcated questionnaire was used (split: only asked to half of the respondents in each case).