Attitude to the Census (Panel: First wave, April - May 1987)

Attitude of the German population and of census critics to the census
before census day, 31 May 1987. Political attitudes.

Topics: political interest; satisfaction with democracy in the Federal
Republic; feeling of political effectiveness and degree of
representation by politicians and parties; orientation of government
policies on personal interest or public welfare; attitude to the
census; intent to participate of members of household and respondent;
willingness to participate after reference to threat of fine; filling
out the survey questionnaire oneself or by another person in household;
conversations about the census in social surroundings and time of last
conversation; attitude to the census in circle of friends and
acquaintances as well as their willingness to participate; importance
of political attitudes in social surroundings and visibility of one´s
own views; knowledge about contents of the census survey (scale);
assumed difficulty of filling out the survey questionnaire; preference
for filling it out in the presence of the canvasser or alone;
misgivings about canvassers in residence; difficulties in taking care
of official matters; frequency of contact and ability to establish
contacts; trust in institutions and organizations; self-assessment on a
left-right continuum; assumed position of the majority of the
population on a left-right continuum; postmaterialism; sympathy scale
for political parties; frequency of use of television news broadcasts
as well as local news and political part of a daily newspaper; time of
last noticed media reports about the census and tendency of content of
these articles; assumed attitude of the population to the census;
living together with a partner and his attitude to the census; assumed
participation of partner in the census; response or boycott behavior
during the census survey; attitude to government statistics; attitude
to punishment of census boycotters and preferred government behavior
regarding refusals; personal concerns regarding misuse of personal
census data; trust in observance of data protection; sympathy regarding
social movements as well as personal membership; party preference;
perceived fears and their causes; attitude to technology; attitude to
computers and to scientific innovations; attitude to government
behavior with data; assessment of census refusers as system opponents;
attitude to storing personal data; importance of data protection and
trust in observance of the data protection regulation; judgement on the
quality of data protection; earlier participation in a survey and type
of survey; attitude to selected infringements of law and crimes as well
as other illegal actions (scale); religiousness; union membership;
self-assessment of social class; possession of a telephone; willingness
to participate in a re-interview.

The following additional questions were posed to persons with strong
or very strong political interest: demographic information on close
circle of friends (ego-centered network); agreement with the respondent
regarding party preference and attitude to the census; willingness of
friends to participate in the census; familiarity of friends with each
other; personal willingness to participate in selected political forms
of protest (scale); personal concerns regarding misuse of personal data
by selected institutions and government offices.

Demography: month of birth; year of birth; sex; marital status; number
of children; ages of children (classified); religious denomination;
frequency of church attendance; school education; vocational training;
occupation; occupational position; employment; monthly gross income of
respondent and household altogether; number of persons contributing to
household income; size of household; position of respondent in
household; characteristics of head of household; number of persons
eligible to vote in household; persons in household who do not have
German citizenship; self-assessment of social class; union membership
of respondent and other members of household; possession of a
telephone.

Interviewer rating: presence of third persons during interview and
person desiring this presence; intervention of others in interview and
person introducing this intervention; attitude to the census of
additional persons present during interview; presence of further
persons in other rooms; willingness to cooperate and reliability of
respondent.

Also encoded was: length of interview; date of interview;
identification of interviewer; sex of interviewer; age of interviewer.