Prerequisites of Political Opinion-Making in the Federal Republic

Topics: Political interest; most important political problems; attitude to Ostpolitik and reunification; familiarity and judgement on leading politicians in the FRG; satisfaction with the Federal Government; importance of areas of life; assessment of the influence of the FRG on NATO, the EEC and general world politics; detailed determination of the image of the SPD, CDU, FDP and an ´ideal party´ (semantic differentials and other technologies of image determination); changes of distance from the parties; party preference (Sunday question, pair comparisons and list procedure); party one cannot vote for; self-assessment of closeness to the parties as well as to trade unions and churches; decision criteria for the eligibility of a party; party sympathies of family and friends; danger of a world war; most important goals of school education; satisfaction with democracy; judgement on general and personal economic situation; general contentment with life; attitude to the welfare state; self-assessment of social class; local residency; memberships.

Scales: dogmatism and rationality. Demography: age; sex; marital status; religious denomination; religiousness; school education; vocational training; occupation; employment; career opportunities; income; household income; size of household; housing situation; city size; state; refugee status. Interviewer rating: social class of respondent.