Mannheim Elite Study 1968

Topics: characterization of particular burdens of the professional position; occupational satisfaction; competition pressure on one´s own position; most important factors of personal occupational career; judgement on the chances for talented young newcomers in one´s area of occupation; attitude to transfer of executives between areas of science, industry, politics and the economy; preferred areas for a personal change; significant special interest groups in one´s area of occupation; assessment of the importance of selected sources of information for one´s own orientation; newspapers and magazines read; personal information deficits in the political area; judgement on the extent of government order policies in the economic process; judgement on the economic situation and the economic future of the Federal Republic as well as of the GDR; consequences of recognition of the GDR; judgement on the last Adenauer government, the government time of Erhard and of the grand coalition (scale); judgement on the effects of the grand coalition on democracy in the FRG; importance of political goals and issue-ability of the grand coalition; assessment of the influence and the success of the two coalition partners; assessment of deficiencies and advantages of the political system of the FRG; judgement on the emergency legislation; attitude to a majority vote system; assessment and judgement on the influence as well as desired power of special interest groups as well as political institutions in the FRG; attitude to the federalist principle of the FRG; judgement on the finance reform; preferred government coalition; major problems of domestic policy; attitude to a two-party system; judgement on organization form and decision-making of the parties; perceived differences between the views of the CDU/CSU and the SPD; reasons for the success of the NPD and expected proportion of votes in the Federal Parliament election 1969; assessment of the stability of the political system in the FRG; judgement on the jeopardy to political order through radicals in case of an economic crisis; assessment of equality of opportunity in the FRG; party preference and party identification; assessment of the most influential personalities in the FRG; regional and social origins; memberships; personal passive and active work in the NSDAP; military rank at the end of the war; self-assessment of belonging to the 2000 most influential personalities in the FRG.

Scales: dogmatism, understanding of democracy and attitude to social change. Demography: age; sex; marital status; number of children; religious denomination; religiousness; frequency of church attendance; school education; occupational position; occupational career; self-assessment of social class; Hobbys; child-raising in parental home. Interviewer rating: interest of respondent in interview and interest in political questions in general; willingness of respondent to cooperate; designation of the most difficult questions during the interview; length of interview; presence of other persons; number of interruptions of the interview.