10.3886/ICPSR03682.v1 Forschungsgruppe Wahlen (Mannheim) Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research 2003 attitudes candidates democracy economic conditions economic issues elections government performance nuclear energy political interest political parties politicians public confidence public opinion social issues taxes voter attitudes voting behavior 2003-06-05 2003-06-05 1999-01 1999-12 survey data 3682 1 The Politbarometer surveys are undertaken to assess the attitudes and opinions of eligible German voters on current events and problems, as well as on parties and politicians. The topics covered in the 1999 German Politbarometer East fall into two broad categories: (1) Topics consistently covered in the monthly East Politbarometer surveys in 1999 include: voting intention and party preference, voting behavior in the last federal parliamentary elections, sympathy scale for the parties, satisfaction with the achievements of the federal government, self-assessed position on a left-right political continuum, assessment of the economic situation in the Federal Republic (and anticipated further development) and the respondent's own economic situation (and expected development). (2) Topics covered in at least one month during the survey year include: satisfaction with democracy, activities of the federal government and opposition parties, the competence of the government and opposition parties, attitudes toward political coalitions, assessment of the most important political personalities and candidates for election in the Federal Republic, comparison of the present federal government with its predecessor, interest in politics, attitudes toward the new tax law and toward contributions to the social security and wage and income tax, comparison of the social conditions of Germany with those of neighboring West European countries, attitudes toward double nationality and toward the European Union, advantages and disadvantages of the use of the euro, attitudes toward developments in the Balkans, feelings about the present and future use of nuclear power, opinions of various political parties, including the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Freie Demokratische Partei or Liberal Democratic Party (FDP), the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands or Social Democratic Party (SPD), and the Green Party. Demographic information on respondents includes sex, age, marital status, household size and composition, education, occupation and employment status, religious preference, and trade union membership. This list of topics was derived from the summary appearing on the Web site of the Zentralarchiv fur Empirische Sozialforschung an der Universitat zu Cologne (English translation) at: <a href="http://www.gesis.org/ZA/">http://www.gesis.org/ZA/</a>.