Politbarometer 1982 (Cumulated Data Set)

The Politbarometer has been conducted since 1977 on an almost monthly basis by the Forschungsgruppe Wahlen on behalf of the Second German Television (ZDF). Since 1990, this database has also been available for the new German states. The survey focuses on the opinions and attitudes of the voting-age population in the Federal Republic on current political issues, parties, politicians, and voting behavior. From 1990 to 1995 and from 1999 onward, the Politbarometer surveys were conducted separately both in the newly formed eastern and in the western German states (Politbarometer East and Politbarometer West). The separate monthly surveys of a year are integrated into a cumulative data set that includes all surveys of a year and all variables of the respective year. Starting in 2003, the Politbarometer short surveys, collected with varying frequency throughout the year, are integrated into the annual cumulation.<br>At all nine survey times the following questions were posed:
party preference (list procedure and rank order procedure); sympathy
scale for the parties, government, opposition and selected top
politicians; party inclination; party identification; union membership;
religiousness; description of residential surroundings; city size. In
at least one of the monthly surveys the following questions were posed:
right people in leading positions; satisfaction with democracy;
political interest; party one cannot vote for; sympathy scale for
Reagan and Thatcher; judgement on general as well as personal economic
situation and expected further economic development; comparison of the
economic situation in the Federal Republic with other countries of the
EC; significance of the governing party for one´s own economic
situation and preferred party in view of the economic development;
assessment of the development of general unemployment; job creation as
government or private task; expected effectiveness of the employment
program of the Federal Government and attitude to financing through a
sales tax increase; alternatively preferred desired financing; general
attitude to illicit work and personal tendency to employ someone doing
illicit work; judgement on the SPD/FDP cooperation; desired duration of
this coalition; attitude to different views between the coalition
parties and perceived jeopardy to the coalition from different views;
preferred coalition change of the FDP and desire for new elections in
such a case; judgement on the coalition break-up and assigment of
blame; attitude to a Bonn government office for Franz-Josef Strauss;
attitude to early new elections; judgement on the separation of SPD and
FDP as well as the change of government; attitude to absolute majority
for one party; coalition preference; expected election winner;
assessment of the chances of the Greens to take seats in the municipal
council, state parlament and Federal Parliament; chances of a green
government participation; chances of the FDP to take seats in the
Federal Parliament; necessity of a new party; self-classification as
well as classification of the parties on a left-right continuum;
comparison of the military strength of East and West and perceived
threat from this; judgement on German-American relations and perceived
changes since assumption of office by Reagan; desire for increased
orientation towards the USA; perceived change of the security of peace
in Europe; necessity of the peace movement and readiness for
participation in demonstrations; judgement on the natural gas and pipe
deal with the USSR and assessment of the USSR as reliable partner;
sympathy scale for Italians, Yugoslavs, Americans, Greeks, French and
Turks in the Federal Republic; necessity of guest workers for the
German economy; attitude to limitation of length of stay of guest
workers; attitude to preference for Germans in hiring; attitude to
making it easier to acquire German citizenship and to the right to vote
in municipal elections for foreigners; foreigners as neighbors or
colleagues; attitude to reduction in the foreign workforce in the
Federal Republic; issue relevance and issue ability of the parties;
attitude to expansion of nuclear power plants and reduction in
governmental services in the social area as well as stationing of
missiles in the Federal Republic; attitude to cancellation of financial
aid for school children and financial aid for students; judgement on
the Federal Government as well as the political system in the Federal
Republic as guarantee for fundamental freedoms as well as just and
fair; preference for increased personal responsibility or government
responsibility; postmaterialism; attitude to intervention of church and
trade unions in politics; attitude to a later store closing one day
each week; expected world soccer champion and assumed placing of the
German team.