Measuring political apathy, cynisism and activism, in the Netherlands and Germany Frequency of reading domestic political news in newspapers / participation in discussions about domestic political news / interest in current news about public affairs / indispensability of political parties / role of civil servants-politicians / trust in decisions of the government / whether real powers are located outside government and parliament / whether there is at least one party committed to r.'s interests / whether there are important differences between political parties / whether politicians use too many difficult words / whether too many decisions are made in secret / honesty of politicians / whether politics is too complicated to understand / influencing government policies by voting / r.'s opinion about attitude and behaviour of politicians / influence of r. on government-policy / knowledge of politics / does r.'s vote matter or not / political party programs / interest of political parties / r.'s opinion about politics: interesting, honest, important, difficult, good or mostly bad, stupid or smart / intention to vote at the next parliamentary elections / which party respondent will vote for / which party most appropriate for protest votes / casting a protest vote at the next elections / ever having contacted a politician, signed a petition, participated in a demonstration, lodged a complaint, participated in a civic action group. Background variables: basic characteristics/ income/capital assets/ education/ politics/ religion