Autumn Study 1986

Judgement on parties and politicians; political attitudes.

Topics: confidence in the future; judgement on the economic situation
in the Federal Republic and evaluation of further developments in a
year; evaluation of the development of unemployment in the Federal
Republic; interest in politics; goals in life and basic position on
life; most important social goals (scale); most important political
problems and ability of the parties to solve them; party inclination;
party allegiance and reasons for identification with a party (scale);
judgement of party´s work and attitude to the parties in general;
attitude to research and technology as well as acceptance of technology
(scale); understanding of democracy (scale); personal swing voting;
behavior in the last Federal Parliament election in 1983; party
preference (ballot system, first and second vote); issue-relevance;
issue-competence of the parties; attitude to NATO; judgement on the
performance of the Federal Government; attitude to nuclear energy;
preferred social system; national pride; satisfaction with democracy;
self-assessment and classification of the parties in the Federal
Parliament on a left-right continuum; significance of selected moral
concepts and their realization in the Federal Republic (scale);
attitude to the entry into the Federal Parliament by the Greens;
sympathy-scale for the federal parties; characterization of individual
federal parties and judgement on their public image (scale); assessment
of the connection between coal-fired power plants and forest death;
sense of duty and achievement orientation (scale); personal opinion
leadership and political commitment; importance of areas of life:
family, profession and leisure; attitude to family, partnership and
children (scale); housing status; importance of leisure and profession;
work orientation (scale); most important criteria for an ideal
occupation; conflicts felt between profession and family; readiness to
move; leisure needs and the most important leisure activities;
consumption orientation and shopping habits; mobility within
generations; significance of religion in the parental home; attitude to
religion; religiousness; ties to church; main interest for municipal,
state or federal politics; most important tasks for municipal politics
(scale); occupation in civil service; membership in a club, a citizens
initiative, a party or an occupational organization as well as offices
held; self-assessment of social class and classification of parents´
social class; union membership; union office; solidarity with trade
unions; possession of telephone.

In Hesse the following questions were additionally asked: sympathy
scale for the state parties; behavior in the last state election; party
preference at the state level; assessment of the chances for the FDP
and the Greens in the next state election; attitude to the entry of the
FDP and the Greens into the state parliament; attitude to a coalition
between the SPD and the Greens.

Interviewer rating: presence of other people during the interview and
their relationship to the respondent; intervention in the interview;
willingness of respondent to cooperate and reliability of answers.

Additionally encoded were: duration of interview; date of interview;
sex of interviewer.