Youth and State

Judgement on political force and terrorism. Topics: general contentment with life and well-being in the FRG; political interest and its development in comparison to earlier; consent with the political order in the Federal Republic (scale); most important group representing personal interests; importance of social values and government influence on the development of goals in life; degree of concern about political mistakes; attitude to social changes in the Federal Republic and preferred method for such changes; assessment of the social capability to change of the Federal Republic; understanding of democracy and judgement on democratic reality in the FRG; significance of the history of German democracy; naming democratic models; assessment of degree of democratization in the countries Switzerland, USA, GDR and in the Federal Republic (scale); assessment of possibilities for citizen influence at various political levels; basic agreement with political action; assumed personal consequences of radical change of the existing balance of power of left or right; most important points of personal criticism of society (scale) and assessment of particularly threatening, social-political problems; self-assessment on a left-right continuum (100-point scale); judgement on different manners of action against demonstrators; appropriate legal action against terrorists; most important reasons for the development of terrorism in the Federal Republic; causes for personal contacts with police authorities or the judiciary; party preference; religiousness; personal considerations on leaving the church; religious denomination of parents.

Also encoded were: city size; sex of interviewer; age of interviewer; interviewer education and employment. The following additional questions were posed to respondents 36 years old and older: assessment of fascism; existence of exploitation in the FRG; assumed understanding of democracy among members of the pre-war generation; political participation; possible intensity of personal political commitment; detailed information on earlier as well as current membership in organizations and clubs; intensity of participation; degree to which it is considered possible to participate and play a role in established parties as well as citizen initiatives and groups of alternative ways of life such as work and housing collectives; degree of personal emotional impact from political terrorist attacks or murders; political image of the opponent or group of persons for which one feels a particular hate; characterization of personal social conduct and consideration for others (scale); judgement on the press in the Federal Republic; reading habits; participation in alternative ways of life and experiences, already experienced as well as desired; identification of political groups as protector or threat to freedom in the Federal Republic; assessment of personal development as a result of predisposition or consequence of social conditions; doubt about the suicide of the terrorists in the Stammheim prison; stating differences in opinions on politics, society and family between respondent and parents; characterization of social conduct of both parents; party preference of both parents as well as of spouse/partner and the closest friends of respondent; position in sibling sequence; number of siblings; illegitimacy; youth with parents or in a home; type and financing of university education; cities of study; residential surroundings during time of studies; difficulties in school or in vocational training and during studies; performing military service or substitute service; service rank; regional and social origins of parents; parents as members of groups racially or politically or religiously persecuted; self-assessment of social mobility; judgement on one´s own occupational future and consent of parents with choice of occupation.