Pre-Election Study 1994 (Trend Investigations)

Judgement on parties and politicians. Political questions. European
Union. Media usage in view of the Federal Parliament election. Election
advertising and election campaign. Topics: The following questions were
posed in at least one - often however in several surveys - of the 13
studies cumulated into this data set: city size; most important
political problems in Germany; party preference (Sunday question);
intent to participate in the election; absentee ballot; preferred
candidate and preferred party; certainty of one´s voting decision;
behavior at the polls in the last Federal Parliament election; point in
time and possible re-orientation in the voting decision for the Federal
Parliament election 1990; interest in election of the Statt {instead
of} Party in the Federal Parliament election; attitude to a one-party
government by CDU/CSU or SPD; perceived jeopardy to recovery from an
SPD-Greens government; coalition preferences; attitude to a statement
of willingness to form a coalition by the FDP as well as by the SPD
before the next Federal Parliament election; attitude to an SPD-Greens
minority government in the Federal Parliament with the help of the PDS;
sympathy scale for the parties, the CDU/CSU-FDP Federal Government, the
parties part of the government, the opposition and top politicians;
preference for federal chancellor; perceived harm for the country in
the case of chancellorship of Scharping as well as Kohl; effects of the
Kohl statement, not to run for office in the next Federal Parliament
election; the right people in politics; preference for new or
experienced politicians; comparison of the two candidates for
chancellor regarding their credibility, their energy, their sense of
responsibility, their social as well as honest attitude, their winner
type, their strength of achievement, their leadership and their ability
to solve economic problems of the country; satisfaction with democracy
and the condition of society in Germany; judgement on the current
economic situation and future development; assessment of personal
economic situation and expected further development; dependence of
one´s own economic situation on the composition of the Federal
Government; expected recovery; government composition most able to
solve the economic problems in Eastern Germany as well as in Western
Germany; issue competence of selected coalitions; evaluation of the
demand of the Greens to dissolve the Federal German Armed Forces as
well as to eliminate NATO; significance of a dissolution of the Federal
German Armed Forces; residential status; length of residence;
satisfaction with residence; judgement on the amount of rent and size
of residence; currently house-hunting; house-hunting in the last year.
Media and the Federal Parliament election: watching television;
watching/listening to news; frequency of watching the evening news on
the First and Second Television Networks as well as news broadcasts of
SAT1, RTL and PRO7; interest in political news on television; reports
noticed about the Federal Parliament election in news broadcasts on
television, in other TV broadcasts as well as on the radio; listening
to news on the radio; interest in political broadcasts on TV; frequency
of reading the Bild newspaper; interest in the political reports in the
Bild newspaper and information noticed about the Federal Parliament
election in this newspaper; frequency of reading daily newspapers;
interest in political topics in the daily newspaper and information
noticed about the Federal Parliament election; specification of
national daily newspapers read; frequency of noticing Federal
Parliament election advertisements in newspapers and magazines;
frequency of contact with Federal Parliament election posters,
hand-bills, brochures and TV election broadcasts of the parties;
general interest in election advertising; frequency of political
conversations; interest in conversations about the Federal Parliament
election; interest in election topics, top candidates and election
campaign events; attitude to admission of Germany into the UN Security
Council; assumed certainty of one party´s winning the election;
expected winner of the Federal Parliament election; assumption about
the coalition preferences of the SPD and judgement on different
coalition possibilities; self-classification on a left-right scale;
attitude to deportation of Kurds guilty of criminal offence; attitude
to deployment of the Federal German Armed Forces at violent
demonstrations; interest in politics. European policies: intent to
participate in the European Election; party preference in the European
Election; behavior at the polls in the last European Election 1989;
interest in European policies; preference for an independent
nation-state or the European Union; attitude to increased powers for
the European Parliament; advantageousness of EU membership by Germany
for the German population; extent to which informed about the job of
the European Parliament; advantages or disadvantages of the domestic
market; attitude to a common currency (ECU); preference for national or
European responsibility in the fight against unemployment,
environmental protection, the fight against crime and in solving
problems in agriculture; attitude to increased participation by Germany
as well as the EU in conflict solving in the world; attitude to
admission into the EU of Austria, Finland, Norway and Sweden as well as
future admission of Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic,
the Slovak Republic, Croatia, Slovenia, the Baltic nations and Turkey;
attitude to decision-making authority of the European Parliament over
the admission of new countries. Miscellaneous: attitude to removing
restrictions on hard as well as soft drugs; attitude to German
unification; personal preference in the Federal President election;
acceptance of Roman Herzog as Federal President; renewal of the PDS or
merely re-naming; attitude to the PDS in Federal Parliament; necessity
of the PDS to achieve East German interests; expected chances for
election of the PDS as well as the FDP and Alliance 90/Greens in
Federal Parliament; perception of the PDS successes in Eastern Germany
as danger to recovery and danger to democracy; judgement on the term
´red socks´; attitude to the judgement of the Federal Constitutional
Court on deployment of Federal German Armed Forces outside of NATO
territory; attitude to the idea of socialism; attitude to Schroeder as
candidate for chancellor; significance and effect of the Federal
Parliament election; assessment of the most active election campaigner;
most important criteria in the decision for a certain party (party
program, top politicians or policies of the last four years). In the
last trend survey - after the Federal Parliament election - the
following was surveyed: judgement on the performance of the individual
parties as an expected or unexpected result; satisfaction with the
result of the Federal Parliament election; preference for a one-party
government or coalition; desired coalition composition; better election
result with the alternative candidate Schroeder as well as with a
candidate other than Helmut Kohl; judgement on the PDS direct mandates
as well as the 5% clause; party preference after conclusion of the
Federal Parliament election (Sunday question); personal job security;
unemployed or those whose job is endangered in the social surroundings;
status as employee or civil servant; union membership; religiousness;
party inclination; party identification; day of survey; district code.