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.Party preference (Sunday question and rank order procedure); sympathy scale for the parties, government, opposition and selected federal politicians; union membership; religiousness; party inclination and party identification; occupational groups in the residential area. Beyond this common part for all survey months of 1978 the following additional questions were posed in the individual surveys: change of one´s own economic situation compared to the previous year; judgement on current and future economic situation in the country; right persons in leading positions in the country; satisfaction with democracy; personal change in party voted for; behavior at the polls in the Federal Parliament election 1976; necessity of founding a new party for better representation of one´s own interests and preferred political orientation of such a party; satisfaction with re-organization of government; judgement on the parties in the state parliament and Federal Parliament; judgement on the strength of democracy in the fight against terrorism; perceived equal opportunities in...