Spring Study 1979

Judgement on parties and politicians at federal as well as state level.

Topics: besides questions uniform at the federal level the
questionnaire also contains questions only posed in individual states:

1. Federal part: assessment of economic situation in the Federal
Republic as well as of economic development of personal household;
political interest; most important political events in the last year
and judgement on them by respondent; behavior at the polls in the last
Federal Parliament election; general agreement of one´s own political
opinions with the top politicians of the parties as well as the parties
(scale); party preference (ballot procedure); the significance of the
candidate for chancellor for one´s own voting decision; demands on a
good chancellor and a party one can vote for; effort of the parties for
selected social groups; personal identification with selected groups;
most important political tasks in the Federal Republic and issue
competence of the parties; satisfaction with the job of the government
coalition and opposition; classification of parties and politicians as
well as self-classification on a left-right continuum; party
inclination; attitude to state, politicians and political participation
(scale); most important characteristics of a desirable society and
degree of realization in the Federal Republic; most important
characteristics of an effective government and opposition; issue
position of the candidates for chancellor, parties as well as personal
attitude to selected issues; familiarity of the scheduled date of the
elections for European Parliament; assessment of the agreement of the
EC member countries; intent to participate in the European Parliament
election; preferred interest group representation in the European
Parliament; most important political tasks in the state.

2. State parts: In North Rhine-Westphalia the following questions were
also posed: general agreement of one´s own political opinions with
selected politicians and parties in North Rhine-Westphalia; party
preference at state level; satisfaction with state government and
opposition in the state; personal impact of political decisions in
North Rhine-Westphalia in the last year; most important political tasks
in one´s own municipality; most important problems at federal, state or
municipal level as well as judgement on the achievements of politicians
at these levels; child-orientation of society in general as well as of
one´s own residential area; reasons for reduction in birthrate;
attitude to government support for young families.

In Schleswig-Holstein beyond part 1 the following questions were
posed: agreement of one´s own political opinion with selected
politicians and parties in the state; party preference at state level;
satisfaction with the job of the state government and state opposition;
trust in selected state institutions; judgement on the election
campaign of individual parties; change of sympathy for top politicians
as well as parties in the course of the election campaign.

In the state of Rhineland-Palatinate the following additional
questions were posed: election participation and behavior at the polls
in the last state parliament election; judgement on the election
campaign of individual parties; information conduct in the election
campaign and attendance at election campaign events; judgement on the
election result for the CDU, SPD and FDP; general agreement of one´s
own political opinion with the top politicians and parties in
Rhineland-Palatinate.

Demography: age; sex; marital status; religious denomination;
frequency of church attendance; school education; occupational
position; current and earlier employment; household income; size of
household; characteristics of head of household; self-assessment of
social class; union membership; number of persons in household
contributing to household income; number of persons in household 18
years old and older; position in household.

Interviewer rating: length of interview; date of interview;
description of place of residence.