Crisis Factors in the Socio-Political System of West Berlin (Population Survey 1981)

Topics: satisfaction with the political system; political interest; intent to participate in the impending election to the Berlin House of Representatives; reasons for abstention from the election; point in time and certainty of one´s voting decision; behavior at the polls in the last (1979) and voting intent in the impending election to the Berlin House of Representatives (first vote and second vote, ballot procedure); satisfaction with top candidates of one´s preferred party; party preference (rank order procedure); sympathy scale for the SPD, CDU, FDP, AL (Alternative List) and SEW (socialist Unity Party West Berlin) as well as for top Berlin politicians; satisfaction scale for the coalition partners in the senate, SPD and FDP, as well as for the CDU in the opposition; preferred mayor; support of collection of signatures for an early election (signature under the AL list or CDU list); election prognosis for the Alternative List; desirability of taking seats in Parliament by AL representatives; attitude to an absolute majority for one party; preferred government composition; postmaterialism (scale); attitude to house occupations; judgement on the conduct of senate and police regarding house occupiers; self-assessment on a left-right continuum; most important political goals for Berlin and for the development of society in general; attitude to women´s initiatives; attitude to a stronger expansion of the welfare state; securing of peace; judgement on the Berlin aid of the Federal Government; assumed attitudes of the Germans to Berlin; remaining in Berlin even in case of closing of the access roads; political participation (scales: conduct in the past as well as possible conduct in the future); assumed readiness for action of the western powers for the freedom of West Berlin; prediction of the election result; Demography: age; sex; marital status; religious denomination; frequency of church attendance; school education; occupational position; employment; respondent is head of household; characteristics of head of household; residential status; union membership; self-assessment of social class; local residency in Berlin and influx from other parts of Germany; social origins; party inclination; party identification; dominant occupational group in residential area; residential status.

Interviewer rating: presence of other persons during the interview and their relation to the respondent; interventions by these persons in the course of the interview; reliability and willingness of respondent to cooperate; time and number of contact attempts; length of interview and date of interview. Also encoded were: identification of interviewer; interviewer age and sex of interviewer; employment; school degree and length of occupation as interviewer with MARPLAN.