Study title

The Politbarometer has been conducted since 1977 on an almost monthly basis by the Forschungsgruppe Wahlen on behalf of the Second German Television (ZDF). Since 1990, this database has also been available for the new German states. The survey focuses on the opinions and attitudes of the voting-age population in the Federal Republic on current political issues, parties, politicians, and voting behavior. From 1990 to 1995 and from 1999 onward, the Politbarometer surveys were conducted separately both in the newly formed eastern and in the western German states (Politbarometer East and Politbarometer West). The separate monthly surveys of a year are integrated into a cumulative data set that includes all surveys of a year and all variables of the respective year. Starting in 2003, the Politbarometer short surveys, collected with varying frequency throughout the year, are integrated into the annual cumulation.February: Satisfaction with democracy in the Federal Republic; party preference (Sunday question and rank order procedure); behaviour at the polls in the last Federal Parliament election; sympathy scale for the political parties and selected politicians; satisfaction scale for the government coalition and opposition; issue competence of the current Federal Government as well as a possible SPD-led government; perceived support for Kohl by the CDU and for Vogel by the SPD; perceived support of the government coalition by CSU and FDP; attitude to nuclear power plants; assessment of the possibility of a nuclear accident in a German nuclear power plant; assumed jeopardy to the population from disregard for regulations in storage and transport of radioactive waste; postmaterialism index; self-classification on a left-right continuum; attitude to the principle of rule by law and restriction of fundamental rights; attitude to the death penalty; attitude to prohibition of parties endangering security; freedom of the press for opponents of the state. January: The right...