Autumn Study 1989

Attitudes to current political topics.

Topics: fear of the future; judgement on one´s own financial
situation; interest in politics; the feeling of having political
influence; most important political problems in the Federal Republic
and issue competence of the parties; satisfaction with democracy and
most important reasons for dissatisfaction; party inclination; party
identification; party inclination in principle or relative to the
situation; associations with the term state; the state as protector of
order, of the economy, of social protection or as eliminator of social
inequalities; just social system in the Federal Republic;
self-classification as member of a privileged or disadvantaged
population group and expected future development; personal change of
party voted for; behavior at the polls in the last Federal Parliament
election; satisfaction with the elected party; party preference (ballot
procedure); eligibility of the Republicans and attitude to this party´s
taking seats in the Federal Parliament; most important reasons to vote
for the Republicans; most important concerns and problems;
participation in conventional as well as unconventional forms of
political activities; trust in political institutions, authorities and
the media; the feeling that politics has failed in important matters;
judgement on the way the parties and politicians work (scale); party
dissatisfaction; preference for democracy or dictatorship; preferred
role of the Federal Republic as partner of the USA or as independent
nation; securing of peace through the NATO; sympathy scale for the
major parties; national pride; assessment of the popularity of the
Germans abroad; attitude to reunification; postmaterialism;
self-classification on a left-right continuum; value scale (scale of
personal, social and political values); attitude to National Socialism;
evaluation of proportion of foreigners in the Federal Republic;
designation of the foreigners in Germany as guests, fellow-citizens or
strangers; attitude to acceptance of emigrants, ethnic Germans from
Eastern Europe, guest workers and persons seeking asylum as well as
perceived burden on the FRG from these groups; potential for right-wing
extremism (scale); religiousness; ties to church; employment in the
civil service; fear of short time work or unemployment; union
membership and solidarity with the trade union; ethnic German from
Eastern Europe or refugee status; year of moving to the Federal
Republic; possession of a telephone; number of eligible voters in the
household.

Also encoded was: length of interview and date of interview; city
size.