Comparative Election Study 1990 (Primary Respondents, 1st Wave)

Political attitudes; media usage; judgement on parties and politicians. Topics: Judgement on the current economic situation in the Federal Republic and expectation for the next year; interest in politics; regularly reading the Bild tabloid; daily newspapers read; recording frequency and topics of daily newspapers read; interest in political reports and political commentaries; regularly reading ZEIT and Spiegel; books read in the last three months; opportunities of reception of SAT1 and RTL; favorite stations on television; frequency of following TV news programs, organized according to broadcast time and TV station; self-classification of intensity of following news broadcasts; frequency of watching selected television series, crime series, shows, game shows, political broadcasts and business broadcasts; most important political problems in Germany; postmaterialism; intent to participate in the election; party preference (first vote and second vote); knowledge about the significance of first vote and second vote; expected winner of the coming Federal Parliament election; sympathy scale for Federal Chancellor Kohl and candidate for chancellor Lafontaine; preference for federal chancellor; attitude to democracy as idea; satisfaction with democracy; self-classification on a left-right continuum; political interest and understanding of political processes (scale); party inclination and party identification; preference for governmental or market economy solution of economic problems in the new states; assumed position of the individual parties on this question; attitude to restriction of the right to asylum, on the question of abortion and on the question of nuclear energy as well as assumed position of the parties in these questions; behavior at the polls in the last Federal Parliament election or in the election to the Berlin House of Representatives; perceived representation of interests of respondent by selected associations, organizations and parties; classification of the importance of these organizations and parties for the respondent; recording the four most important conversation spartners of respondent; detailed information on frequency of contact, familial relation, frequency of political discussions, age, occupational position, union membership, religious affiliation, assumed party preference, political knowledge, agreement of opinion, assumed attitude of these persons on the topic abortion; partner through life; living together with partner through life; employment in the civil service; religiousness; year of birth; month of birth; born in the old states or length of residence in the old states; regional origins from the eastern states; residential status; possession of a telephone.

Additionally the following was surveyed: conduct of respondent on being asked to send an envelope with an enclosed questionnaire to one of the specified persons; recording whether the person interviewed wanted to be named as sender or not; reasons for refusal to be sender. Interviewer rating: presence of other persons during the interview; interventions of other persons in the course of the interview; willingness of respondent to cooperate; classification of reliability of respondent; length of interview; date of interview; identification of interviewer; sex of interviewer; age of interviewer.