States Study Spring 1974

The political opinion climate before the state parliament elections
1974 in the states Schleswig-Holstein, Hesse, Lower Saxony,
Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria. Judgement on
parties, politics and politicians.

Topics: The questionnaire for all investigated states consists of a
uniform ´federal part´ and a specific state part.

1. Federal part: judgement on current and future economic situation of
the FRG; political interest and frequency of political conversation;
memory of the most important political news; preferred federal
chancellor; party preference (ballot procedure); memory of behavior at
the polls in the state parliament election 1972; most important
political tasks and party most able to fulfill these tasks; politicians
with greatest influence in the Federal Republic; party inclination
(three-way split); fear of loss of job; preferred politicians for the
CDU leadership; attitude to the Young Union and the Jusos {Young
Socialists}; perceived influence of Jusos on the SPD in general and on
the local SPD; personal opinion leadership; making personal political
preferences public in discussions; sympathy scale for the SPD, CDU/CSU
and FDP; judgement on foreign policy and the importance of relations to
the USA, the Soviet Union, the EC and the GDR; perceived changes within
the parties since 1969.

2. State part: the state parts are largely identical in their survey
contents. Merely the respective politician names were changed.
Judgement on current and future economic situation of the state; most
important political tasks and most able party; judgement on the degree
of familiarity of selected state politicians; preferred prime minister;
characteristics of the most important top politicians of the state
parties; memory of personal behavior at the polls in the last state
parliament election and intended voting decision in the next state
parliament election; preferred coalition; attitude to a coalition
commitment before the election; knowledge of coalition arrangements;
sympathy scale for the state parties.

Demography: age; sex; marital status; religious denomination;
frequency of church attendance; school education; occupational
training; employment; number of recipients of income; household income;
respondent is head of household; characteristics of head of household;
refugee status; memberships.

Interviewer rating: interest of respondent in interview; number of
contact attempts; length of interview; date of interview.