Attitude to democracy and demands on the state in the years 1985/86 and
1989.

Topics: attitude to government intervention in the life of the
citizens; assessment of the degree of bureaucratization;
postmaterialism index; perceived political attachment with the Federal
Republic, the EC, the state of respondent, the place of residence and
another country; judgement on democracy behavior of the West Germans;
personal attitude to democracy and satisfaction with democracy;
countries with a better form of democracy; comparison of democracy in
the Federal Republic with personal ideal concepts; understanding of
democracy; most important criteria of an ideal democracy and extent of
realization in the Federal Republic (scales); evaluation of government
intervention in the economy; attribution of influences on personal
course of life; general contentment with life; degree of fulfillment of
demands on life in a society; under-privileged population groups and
personally belonging to such a group; attitude to an extension of
government tasks; responsibilities for solving selected social tasks
and problems, actually perceived and desired in the future;
conversation partner for political discussions and frequency of
diverging political attitudes; social moral orientations (scale);
satisfaction with results of politics since 1949 and reasons for this
satisfaction; judgement on the achievements and assessment of sympathy
for the political parties and politicians in the Federal Republic;
personal participation and potential willingness to participate in
selected political forms of protest and protest actions; political
participation; attitude to selected political institutions and life in
the political system of the Federal Republic; judgement on personal
possibilities to influence politics and attitude to persons making
political decisions as well as to groups and movements; closeness to
the Federal Republic; attitude to socialism; attitude to police action
against soccer fans and foreigners; attitude to more energetic action
by the government against the flood of asylum-seekers; attitude to
citizens joining together against violent demonstrators; party
preference (Sunday question).

Demography: age; sex; marital status; number of children; religious
denomination; religiousness; frequency of church attendance; school
education or school education sought; number of working hours per week;
vocational training; employment; income; household income; sources of
income; size of household; length of local residency; length of
residence in state; number of persons in household over 18 years old
and of German nationality; number of unemployed persons in household;
memberships; union membership; offices; political interest;
self-classification on a left-right continuum; party identification;
party inclination; satisfaction with democracy; political solidarity
with the FRG; evaluation of movements or citizens´ initiatives;
possession of a telephone; consent with a follow-up survey and with
address storage in survey institute.

The following questions were only posed to employed: occupational
position; employment in the civil service; unemployment since 1980;
estimated occupational prospects or changes in the next five years.

The following questions were only posed to schoolchildren or students
at the same time classifying themselves as employed: current and
earlier occupational position; current and earlier employment in the
civil service; employment before start of studies or school; year in
which one was last employed full-time; unemployment since 1980.

The following questions were only posed to pensioners at the same time
classifying themselves as employed: current and earlier occupational
position; current and earlier employment in the civil service;
employment before retirement; year of retirement; unemployment since
1980.

The following questions were only posed to pensioners not employed:
employment before retirement; last occupational position; earlier
employment in the civil service; year of retirement; unemployment since
1980.

The following questions were only posed to unemployed: time of
unemployment; earlier unemployment; time of earlier unemployment; last
occupational position; earlier employment in the civil service.

The following questions were only posed to unemployed housewives,
those in the military or performing community service in lieu of the
military, schoolchildren, students and other unemployed: earlier
employment; last occupational position; earlier employment in the civil
service; year in which one was last employed full-time; unemployment
since 1980.

Interviewer rating: presence of third persons during interview and
their degree of relationship to respondent; interventions of others in
interview; willingness of respondent to cooperate; reliability of
respondent; length of interview; date of interview; place of survey.

Also encoded was: sex of interviewer; age of interviewer.

From the questions extensive indices were formed, which are present in
the data set as reference numbers.