As part of this project, we produced a new dataset, which harmonizes numerous existing public opinion surveys from across the world to create a unique global public opinion dataset. These studies consists of over 1,100 individual country-year datasets. Putting all these together, covers 160 countries and over 3 Million respondents.

This research will study the legacy impacts of previous authoritarian regimes on its citizens' political attitudes today. It thereby addresses important and unresolved questions of democratisation, by using a new methodological approach of cohort analysis to examine the lasting legacy of authoritarian dictatorships. Previous research has overlooked the possibility of citizens' formative experiences in non-democratic systems that might impact their political attitudes, values, and behaviour even after the existence of these regimes. We expect that these legacy impacts have important implications for the development of a democratic political culture in transitioning societies.

We will hence develop a new theory of authoritarian socialization, which assumes that different authoritarian regimes vary in the way they suppress their citizens, and that this in turn will lead to distinctive beliefs and behaviour in the population. Studying the experience of whole generations (or cohorts as they are also referred to) who have been socialised under dictatorships makes it possible to investigate whether regimes differ in terms of the impact they may have on their citizens' beliefs. Further we are interested in whether and how this imprint might negatively affect the establishment of a democratic political culture. The objective of this project is to develop a typology of regime characteristics and their lasting impact on the population. We expect that this typology and an accompanying policy brief will inform the practical developmental work of organisations working in transitioning societies.

This objective will be achieved by conducting a comprehensive analysis of post-authoritarian countries from different parts of the world during the entire 20th century that experienced different types and durations of suppression. This includes the military regimes in South America, but also the socialist regimes in the former Eastern block. It is not possible to study the impact of these regimes during their existence, as representative public opinion research is not possible during dictatorships. We argue, however, that this is not necessary. Instead we rely on the method of cohort analysis, developed by the principle investigator Dr. Neundorf. One of the main methodological innovations of this project is that this method allows us to identify distinct characteristics of those generations that were mainly socialised during dictatorships.

To test our new theory of authoritarian socialisation, we will merge existing survey data from numerous post-authoritarian countries. Today this is possible, as survey research and public opinion polls are widespread beyond established Western democracies. For example, since 1995 several Latin American countries annually take part in the Latinobarometro. Other data that will be used include the World Value Survey (1980-2012), and Asiabarometer (2001-2012) as well as all six rounds of the ESRC-funded European Social Survey (2002-2012). The different survey questions included in the diverse datasets will be harmonised so that a joint analysis is possible. This is a major task of this project and will yield a unique longitudinal, global database of individuals' political attitudes and behaviour.

In order to assign the regime characteristics under which each generation grew up, we will further merge existing data sources (e.g. Polity IV and Autocratic Regime Transitions data) on authoritarian regimes to measure the distinct features of each regime. We will focus, on factors such as intra-elite structure, extent, scope and density of repression, and transition to democracy. The two datasets of individual-level survey data and regime characteristics will be jointly analysed using quantitative statistical analysis of hierarchical age, period, cohort analysis to estimate the generational differences in democratic attitudes and behaviour.

This research project aimed to examine the conceptual frameworks entwined among Cuba, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from 1975 to 1990. It built upon the New Cold War History studies, an approach that has promoted new interpretations after the collapse of the Soviet Union, replacing the Washington-Moscow opposition with a more inclusive and global perspective. From this point of view, this research relied on the idea that Cold War History should decentralize its traditional Eurocentrism, reestablishing the geopolitical importance that other regions like Latin America had on the map of power relations during the second half of the twentieth century. In this vein, Fidel Castro's speeches have been viewed as an essential source of Cuban official discourses regarding both Germanies, serving as an example of Cuban foreign policy that considers not only socialist systems but also capitalist ones. Although Fidel Castro's declaration of the socialist character of the Cuban Revolution led to Cuba's early integration into the Socialist Bloc (Castro 1961), diplomatic collaborations between the German Democratic Republic and Havana reached a high point after Erich Honecker's visit to the island in 1974. Consequently, a new stage in Cuba-GDR relations began (Dieter Kröber and Meyer 1974), controlled by the Solidarity Committee and the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON). On the other hand, after more than a decade of the Hallstein Doctrine, the FRG reestablished diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1975. Hence, the time period ranging from 1975 to 1990 was a suitable period for studying the system of relations among Cuba and both Germanies since it comprised the most active stage of their bonds during the Cold War. The main purpose of this project was to create datasets on Cuban-Germanies semantic networks focusing on the ideas mobilized in Fidel Castro's Speech Data Base from the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin. It also included providing data visualizations of the main themes underscored by Castro concerning German culture, politics, and economy, in order to unveil the imaginaries that revolved around Germany from the official perspective of the Caribbean island. As the following pages will demonstrate, the datasets created through this research, along with their graphical representations, show the main trends encouraged by Germany in these speeches in a broad sense, ultimately outlining how the European culture and the divided country were perceived in the Cuban official discourse at that time. Furthermore, this project illustrates the variations experienced by these discourses across the period, functioning as a "window" into the fluctuating Cuban foreign policy, which was far from being stable and homogeneous. The "inconsistencies" in Castro's speeches regarding both German countries can be partially explained by historical events, such as the peak and decay of Cuba-GDR labor collaborations, the failure to comply with trade agreements before and after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, together with the abrupt end of Cuba-GDR exchanges following the German Reunification. Nevertheless, this "distant reading" of Castro's speeches has also uncovered the complexities of Cuba-FRG relations, the unexpected allegorical and symbolic role played by German history in Castro's claims about the United States of America, as well as the abundance of cultural stereotypes and scientific misinformation that capitalize on the concepts surrounding German culture.

Rechtskenntnisse und -interessen Jugendlicher unterBerücksichtigung bisher erfolgter Rechtserziehung. Zusatzbogenzur Urlaubsgestaltung. Themen: Interesse für Fragen der sozialistischen Demokratie;Einstellung zu wissenschaftlichen Umfragen und zur offenenMeinungsäußerung; Einstellung zu Gesetzen der DDR über Gleichheitund Auseinandersetzung mit Gesetzesverletzung durch jeden;Notwendigkeit umfassender Rechtskenntnisse; persönlicheEinhaltung des sozialistischen Rechts; Beurteilung vonDDR-Gesetzen hinsichtlich Verständlichkeit, Gültigkeit,Notwendigkeit, Nützlichkeit, Einhaltbarkeit; Kenntnis derwichtigsten Gesetze in der DDR wie Verfassung, Jugendgesetz,Arbeitsgesetzbuch, Zivilgesetzbuch, Familiengesetzbuch,Strafgesetzbuch, Eingabengesetz, Wehrdienstgesetz,Landeskulturgesetz; Interesse für einzelne Gebiete des Rechts,für Gesetzblätter und Rechtsveröffentlichungen (Skala); Interessefür Rechtsbereiche (Skala); eigene Fähigkeiten zur Erklärung vonRechtsbegriffen (Skala); Bestimmung des Begriffs "Pflichten";Bewertung des Zusammenhangs von Recht und Pflicht; Gremium fürdas Erlassen von Gesetzen in der DDR; persönlicher Besitz des"Jugendgesetzes", Kenntnis und Wertung seines Inhalts;Verständlichkeit des Jugendgesetzes; Kenntnis von Altersgrenzenfür selbständige Handlungen Jugendlicher (Skala); Kenntnisse zumArbeitsrecht (Skala); Häufigkeit persönlicher Konfrontation mitStraftaten; Furcht vor Straftaten; Entscheidungen über denStraftat-Charakter von geschilderten Vorfällen; Bewertung derrechtserzieherischen Wirkung der FDJ-Gruppe (Skala); Nutzung vonMöglichkeiten des Mitsprache-Rechts in der Arbeitstätigkeit(Skala); Wertung des Unterrichtsfaches "Sozialistisches Recht"(Skala); Recht auf Mitbestimmung jedes Jugendlichen; Nutzung desRechts auf Mitbestimmung; Bereitschaft zur aktiven Mitarbeit beider Durchsetzung des sozialistischen Rechts (Skala); Bereitschaftzur Mitarbeit in Kommissionen und Räten (Skala); persönlicheBedeutsamkeit von Grundrechten in der DDR (Skala); Bereitschaftzur Mitarbeit in der Nationalen Front und in einerVolksvertretung; Kenntnisse des Rechts im Alltag; eigenesunrechtliches Verhalten; Austausch westlicher Literatur imFreundeskreis; Mitglied in der FDJ; soziale Herkunft;Zusatzbogen: Urlaubsort in diesem Jahr; gewünschter Urlaubsort inden nächsten Jahren; Tätigkeiten zur Vorbereitung vonUrlaubsreisen; akzeptierter Preis für DDR-Urlaubsreisen; Anzahlder Urlaube in Jugendherbergen; Anzahl von Auslandsreisen; Gründefür Urlaubsreisen ins Ausland (Skala); bevorzugte Reiseziele imAusland und dafür akzeptierter Preis (Skala); Häufigkeit derTeilnahme an Reisen des Jugendreisebüros Jugendtourist; Gründefür Erwerb einer Jugendtourist-Auslandsreise (Skala); Häufigkeitder Nutzung der Informationsquellen zum Reiseangebot (Skala). Knowledge of and interest in law of young people under consideration of law education up to now. Supplemental form on structuring of vacation. Topics: Interest in questions of socialist democracy; attitude to scientific surveys and open expression of opinion; attitude to laws of the GDR about equality and dealing with violation of law by everyone; necessity of comprehensive law knowledge; personal observance of socialist law; judgement on GDR laws regarding understandability, validity, necessity, usefulness, ability to observe; knowledge about the most important laws in the GDR such as constitution, youth law, work code, civil code, family code, penal code, petition law, military service law, state culture law; interest in individual areas of law, law gazettes and law publications (scale); interest in areas of law (scale); personal abilities to explain legal terms (scale); determination of the term "duties"; evaluation of the connection between law and duty; committee for formulating laws in the GDR; personal possession of the "youth law", knowledge and valuation of its content; understandability of the youth law; knowledge of age limits for independent actions of young people (scale); knowledge about the work law (scale); frequency of personal confrontation with crimes; fear of crimes; decisions about the crime-character of incidents described; evaluation of legal education effect of the FDJ group (scale); use of opportunities for the right to a say at work (scale); valuation of the subject "socialist law" (scale); law on co-determination of every young person; use of the right to co-determination; readiness for active participation in the accomplishment of socialist law (scale); willingness to participate in committees and councils (scale); personal significance of fundamental rights in the GDR (scale); willingness to participate in the National Front and in a representative body; knowledge of law in daily life; personal illegal conduct; exchange of western literature in one's circle of friends; member in the FDJ; social origins; Supplemental form: place of vacation this year; desired place of vacation in the next few years; activities to prepare vacation trips; accepted price for GDR vacation trips; number of vacations in youth hostels; number of trips abroad; reasons for vacation trips to foreign countries (scale); preferred destinations abroad and accepted price for this (scale); frequency of participation in trips of the youth travel agency Jugendtourist; reasons for purchase of a Jugendtourist trip abroad (scale); frequency of use of sources of information on travel selection (scale).