DOI: 10.3886/icpsr06104
title: Central and Eastern Euro-barometer 1: Public Opinion in Central and Eastern Europe, 1990
title: Archival Version

description: This first round of Central and Eastern Euro-Barometer 
 Surveys was undertaken during the reunification of Germany and after 
 the announcement of independence by several Soviet states and the 
 realignment of governments in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria. In 
 an atmosphere of changed relations among the nations of Eastern and 
 Western Europe, this survey attempted to assess Central and Eastern 
 Europeans' awareness of and attitudes toward the European Community, 
 its programs and activities, and issues facing all European nations. It
 also explored citizens' reactions to the political and economic reforms
 occurring in their own countries. Surveys were carried out in 
 Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, and the German Democratic 
 Republic, as well as in the former Soviet Union. The Soviet Union 
 samples were obtained from the Greater Moscow area and from 
 the republics of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova,
 Georgia, Armenia, and Russia west of the Ural Mountains. In all surveys
 comprising Euro-Barometer 1, demographic data usually included the 
 respondent's age, sex, level of education, family size, income, 
 occupation, marital status, and religious denomination. In some places,
 mother tongue and self-described left-right political placement were 
 also ascertained. In most countries, respondents were asked how they 
 felt things were going in their country in general, how well their 
 country's economy and their own finances had fared over the past year, 
 whether they thought the establishment of a free market economy was 
 right or wrong, and whether economic reforms and privatization were 
 occurring too rapidly or too slowly. Satisfaction with the development 
 of democracy and with their own place in their political systems was 
 assessed. In some countries, respondents were asked about their 
 intention to vote in the next general election. Respondents in all 
 countries were asked how frequently they thought of themselves as 
 European, and about their level of trust toward citizens of other 
 European countries. They expressed opinions for or against the 
 reunification of Germany and the unification of Western Europe. They 
 were also asked to indicate how aware they were of, and how interested 
 in, the European Community and its activities and institutions, and to 
 rate how positively they regarded the European Community and the 
 prospect of their country's membership in the Community. 
 Country-specific questions were asked regarding sources of information 
 about the European Community. Several items concerned respondents' 
 reliance on various types of information media, including foreign 
 broadcasts. Participants were also asked about how the economy, 
 government, and private citizens might be advantaged or disadvantaged 
by their country's increasing ties with the European Community.
description: Multistage national probability samples.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Central and Eastern Euro-barometer 1: Public Opinion in Central and Eastern Europe, 1990
description: Persons aged 15 and over residing in six nations in
 Central and Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German
Democratic Republic, Hungary, Poland, and the former Soviet Union.
description: personal interviews(1) Due to the producers concerns about respondent
 candidness, the social desirability of the survey and the fact that
 people from Central and Eastern Europe had no experience with opinion
 research special methods were applied for the Moscow and European USSR
 data to test the validity of the results. These included the
 interviewers' evaluation of the respondent's openness or honesty and
 the inclusion of questions about a fictitious group. (2) The
 single-country datasets for this collection were integrated and
 processed by the staff of ZA (Zentralarchiv fur Empirische
 Sozialforschung) in Cologne, Germany, with the support of ZEUS
 (Zentrum fur Europaische Umfrageanalysen und Studien) in Mannheim,
Germany.