DOI: 10.6077/385m-9697
title: Political Attitudes, Political Participation and Voter Conduct in United Germany, 2002

description: &lt;p&gt;Political attitudes and political participation in united Germany. Cumulated data set from the data sets of the four largely identical cross-section surveys at two different survey times (before and after the election). Topics: The questions listed below were posed either in the pre-election or post-election investigation: judgement on current general and personal economic situation as well as economic situation in the previous year; expected economic situation; knowledge about the importance of first vote and second vote; satisfaction with democracy; interest in politics; intent to vote and certainty of one's voting decision; manner of voting, absentee ballot, voting booth or not voting; the same voting decision after knowledge about the result of the election; party preference (Sunday question, first vote and second vote); selections with first and second vote; time of voting decision; most important reasons for one's own voting decision; voting intent and reasons for not voting; estimated certainty that selected smaller parties would take seats in Federal Parliament (FDP, Alliance 90/the Greens, PDS, Republicans); expected election winner (party) in the Federal Parliament election; evaluation of democracy as conception of a state; most important reasons for dissatisfaction with the parties; coalition preference; satisfaction with result of Federal Parliament election; intensity of following the election campaign; extent of active information conduct during the election campaign phase; party dissatisfaction: judgement on parties and politicians and their work as well as their relationship with the citizens (scale); most important problems of the country; issue relevance and issue ability of the parties; efficacy: possibilities of citizens to influence parties and government (scale); assessment of the position of the most important parties on the topics nuclear energy, influx of foreigners, European unification; personal position on these topics and importance of problem solution; place of residence before the turning point; comparative judgement (before and after the turning point, separate in East and West) on personal standard of living, equity of income distribution, social security, solidarity of the people among each other and protection for the citizens from crime; knowledge about the exact number of states in the Federal Republic; sympathy scale for the CDU, CSU, SPD, FDP, Alliance 90/the Greens, the Republicans, the PDS and the Schill Party; postmaterialism (Inglehart index); psychological self-characterization; trust in institutions: trust in the Federal Parliament, the Federal Constitutional Court, the Federal Government, representatives in Federal Parliament, judiciary, police, government, churches, parties, Federal German Armed Forces, trade unions, environmental protection groups and business associations as well as employer's federations; preference for chancellor; sympathy scale for the candidates for chancellor Stoiber and Schroeder; assessment of the characteristics of the two candidates for chancellor regarding sympathy, trustworthiness, energy and their concepts to get the economy going; political participation (scale); self-classification on a left-right continuum; feeling of being represented in selected associations, institutions and parties; social moral orientations (scale); satisfaction with Federal Government; geographic ties: closeness to the municipality, region, the part of the state, Germany as a whole, the EU and Europe as well as with the former FRG or GDR before 1989; classification of the parties on a left-right continuum; media usage: reading local, regional and national daily newspapers; use of political broadcasts; type (occupational, private), frequency and length of Internet use as well as frequency of use of political information and actions on the Internet; attitude to electronic voting on the Internet; viewing both television debates between the candidates for chancellor Schroeder and Stoiber and assessment of the performance of the candidates; assessment of the equity of the social system in the Federal Republic; assessment of personal disadvantage as member of a specific population group in society; behavior at the polls in the last Federal Parliament election; extremism scale: national pride, desire for nationalization of private businesses, public good before association interests, dictatorship as the better type of state, good sides to National Socialism, Hitler and extermination of Jews, foreign infiltration of the Federal Republic, GDR with more positive sides, marriages between partners of differing nationality, too much influence of Jews, socialism as a good idea, Jews as different and understanding for attacks on homes for applicants for political asylum.&lt;/p&gt;
description: collection_notes: The individual survey times: pre-election: 12. August to 21. September 2002; post-election: 1. October to 8. November 2002; phone follow-up survey: 29. January to 12. February 2003.