Estimating the Policy Position of Political Actors (Routledge Ecpr Studies in European Political Science)

This book gives an up to date reference on the state of the art in this highly important methodological area, which is central both to theoretical models of party competition and to empirical accounts, whether these are case studies or comparative analyses. It looks at subjects including tracking estimates of public opinion and party policy intentions in Britain and the USA; the policy space of party manifestos; and party platforms and voters' perceptions. Its panel of respected contributors reviews the refinements which have been made to established techniques as well as considering the potential and early successes of computer coding. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 List of figures......Page 11 List of tables......Page 13 List of contributors......Page 16 Series Editor's preface......Page 19 Overview......Page 22 Why should we estimate the policy positions of political actors?......Page 24 Searching for the positions of political actors: a review of approaches and a critical evaluation of expert surveys......Page 31 Expert coded text analysis......Page 52 Manifesto research since 1979: from reliability to validity......Page 54 Validating the Manifesto Research Group approach: theoretical assumptions and empirical confirmations......Page 71 Position and salience in the policies of political actors......Page 87 A framework for analysing local party policy emphases in Scotland......Page 97 The policy space of party manifestos......Page 111 Analysing party dynamics by taking partially overlapping snapshots......Page 136 Estimating interparty policy distances from election programmes in Quebec, 1970 89......Page 154 Computer coded text analysis......Page 168 A natural sentences approach to the computer coding of party manifestos......Page 170 Measurement of party positions on the basis of party programmes, media coverage and voter perceptions......Page 183 The computer coding of political texts: results from Britain, Germany, Ireland and Norway......Page 204 Estimating policy positions from the computer coding of political texts: results from Italy, the Netherlands and Ireland......Page 214 Tracking estimates of public opinion and party policy intentions in Britain and the USA......Page 238 Conclusion......Page 258 How should we estimate the policy positions of political actors?......Page 260 Index......Page 266