German Internet Panel, Wave 6 (July 2013)

The GIP serves to collect data about individual attitudes and preferences which are relevant for political and economic decision-making processes. Experimental variations in the instruments were used.

The questionnaire contains numerous randomizations (order of questions or answer categories) as well as a cross-questionnaire experiment. Topics: Attitudes towards reforms in Germany to improve the competitiveness of the EU member states; government spending policy: estimated level of the household lump sum per quarter to be paid instead of the previous GEZ fee; preferred level of the new household lump sum per quarter for ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio; estimated actual annual government spending per German citizen on the motorways in Germany and preferred amount; policy and parties: party preference (Sunday question); attitude to child care subsidy for parents who do not take up a day care place; attitude towards the decided phase-out of nuclear energy after the nuclear catastrophe in Japan in 2011; attitude towards the establishment of a permanent euro rescue fund (ESM); attitude towards Chancellor Merkel´s decision on equal opportunities for same-sex civil partnerships; mainly responsible for the delay of three years in the introduction of child care subsidy and for the phase-out of nuclear energy contrary to the coalition agreement (Chancellor, government party CDU, CSU, or FDP resp. the federal government as a whole); attitude towards the decision of the federal government against the implementation of the European directive on data preservation in Germany and mainly responsible for this decision (Chancellor, CDU government party CDU, CSU, or FDP resp. the federal government as a whole); preferred behaviour of an opposition party (occasional support of government projects in order to be able to govern and to fulfil national responsibility, offering political alternatives and rather no support of government projects); opinion on the behaviour of the SPD (is influenced by its agreement to the phase-out of nuclear energy or on the establishment of a permanent euro rescue umbrella for a party capable of governing); satisfaction with the achievements of the federal government and the achievements of CDU/CSU, SPD, FDP, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and Die Linke in the Bundestag (Skalometer); perception of the federal government and the parties CDU/CSU, SPD, FDP, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and Die Linke as divided or closed (Skalometer); open naming of the topic in which the above-mentioned parties were perceived as particularly divided; main responsible for political stagnation (Federal Chancellor, governing party CDU, CSU, FDP, opposition parties, coalition parties, Länder in the Bundesrat, Federal Constitutional Court, all equally or none of the above-mentioned); greatest problem-solving competence of CDU/CSU, SPD, FDP, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and Die Linke in selected policy areas.