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Analyzing party competition through the comparative manifesto data: some theoretical and methodological considerations

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  • Mattia Zulianello

Abstract

This paper deals with some of the theoretical and methodological concerns arising from an in-depth analysis of one of the most successful research groups in comparative politics: the Comparative Manifesto Project. The first part of the paper discusses its theoretical background: the dimensionality of the political space, the operationalisation of the saliency theory and whether through election manifestos it is possible to determine the actual party positions. The second part attempts to contribute to the methodological debate by focusing on generally neglected weaknesses of the CMP’s method with regard to both the classification scheme and the coding procedure. In particular, it shows that it is probably impossible to correct the major problems here identified without destroying their comparability across time and space, since they are so deeply rooted in the CMP’s approach. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

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  • Mattia Zulianello, 2014. "Analyzing party competition through the comparative manifesto data: some theoretical and methodological considerations," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 1723-1737, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:48:y:2014:i:3:p:1723-1737
    DOI: 10.1007/s11135-013-9870-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Mikhaylov, Slava & Laver, Michael & Benoit, Kenneth R., 2012. "Coder Reliability and Misclassification in the Human Coding of Party Manifestos," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 78-91, January.
    2. Sartori, Giovanni, 1970. "Concept Misformation in Comparative Politics," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 64(4), pages 1033-1053, December.
    3. Christoffer Green-Pedersen, 2007. "The Growing Importance of Issue Competition: The Changing Nature of Party Competition in Western Europe," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 55, pages 607-628, October.
    4. Anthony Downs, 1957. "An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(2), pages 135-135.
    5. Volkens, Andrea, 2002. "Manifesto Coding Instructions (Second Revised Edition)," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Institutions and Social Change FS III 02-201, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
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    Cited by:

    1. Merz, Nicolas & Regel, Sven & Lewandowski, Jirka, 2016. "The Manifesto Corpus: A new resource for research on political parties and quantitative text analysis," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 3(2 (April-), pages 1-8.
    2. Merz, Nicolas, 2017. "The Manifesto-Media Link: How Mass Media Mediate Manifesto Messages," EconStor Books, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 175436, March.
    3. Kostas Gemenis, 2015. "An iterative expert survey approach for estimating parties’ policy positions," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 49(6), pages 2291-2306, November.
    4. Jiang, Jiangang & Zhang, Jianhong, 2023. "Does political ideology matter in Chinese cross-border acquisitions?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).

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