Arms Control and Disarmament Attitudes (Germany)

Attitude of German elites to arms control, disarmament, future policies of the country and European integration. Topics: 1. Questions of domestic policy: judgement on the political development in the next few years; perceived influence of special interest groups on politics; primary differences of the most important parties; attitude to the form of the constitution of the Federal Republic; judgement on the current significance of National Socialism in the FRG. 2. Foreign policy questions: attitude to German foreign policy and neutralizing Europe; judgement on the German-American relationship; expected changes in the status of Berlin; assessment of the chances of reunification and the development of relations with the East; attitude to a reduction in sovereignty for the benefit of international mergers; attitude to European integration. 3. Security policy questions: assessment of the reliability of NATO and the current military threat from the East; judgement on deterrence and the arms costs related to this; attitude to arms controls and the East-West treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons experiments; assumed impairment of security with arms limitations agreements; attitude to nuclear armament of NATO and the distribution of the right to vote of the members. Demography: sex; religious denomination; self-assessment of social class; school education; vocational training; occupation. Also encoded were information from file analyses and a very extensive Interviewer rating: authority, extent to which informed and possibilities to influence of respondent in the individual areas addressed; personality of respondent; belonging to national and international organizations; memberships; participation in military service; academic degree; size of city of origin and current size of place of residence; biographic data and occupational career; party affiliation and party status since before 1933; political activity before the war; identification of interviewer; length of interview; interview surroundings; interruptions of the interview; attitude to interview and interviewer.