Manifesto Project

Databasehttps://manifesto-project.wzb.eu/

Presented by Evgeniia ChirkovaMilan, May 2013

Outline

The general purpose Dataset overview Types of variables used in dataset Calculation of Programmatic Data Variable Calculation of Programmatic Dimension Variable Example of Russian Parliamentary Elections in 2011

The general purpose of the project is…

to measure political preferences of parties across time and space

examines the quality of programmatic representation by comparing policy preferences of parties to the left-right self-placements of voters over time and across regime types through to the present

Dataset overview

Various free and competitive elections between 1920 – 2012

Data source: publicly available election statistics and content analyzed election programs

Number of countries: 55 Number of parties: 905 (gained at least 1 seat in the

parliament) Number of elections: 623

Types of variables usedIdentification Data Quality Electoral Programmatic

DataProgrammatic Dimension

Country Coder ID Percentage of votes gained

Type of program Rile (right-left)

Date of Elections

Manual/No Absolute number of seats gained by party

Dataset origin (updated or no)

Planned Economy

Party identification code

Code Year Total number of seats in the Parliament

Data entries: percentage of 56 categories grouped into seven major policy areas (“per”)

Market Economy

Welfare

Grouping of parties (parfam)

Test Result (test of reliability)

Percentage of uncoded sentences

International Peace

Total number of quasi sentences

To be explained further

The programmatic data variables with “per” notification are the relative share of statements for each category in relation to all statements in the manifesto. A “0.35” means that 0.35 percent of the manifesto were devoted to that category. Since this is a relative share, the scale can run between zero (no statement at all) and 100 (the whole manifesto is about this category)

The domains cover:

1. External relationships (“per” starting with 1)

2. Freedom and democracy (“per” starting with 2)

3. Political system (“per” starting with 3)

4. Economy (“per” starting with 4)

5. Welfare and quality of life (“per” starting with 5)

6. Fabric of society (“per” starting with 6)

7. Social groups (“per” starting with 7)

How to calculate Programmatic Data Variable

Overall - 56 categories

How to calculate Programmatic Dimension Variable

RILE (only variables starting with “per”) =

(104+201+203+305+401+402+407+414+505+601+603+605+606) minus (103+105+106+107+ 403+404+406+412+413+504+506+701+202)

Planeco (only variables starting with “per”) = 403+404+412

Markeco (only variables starting with “per”) = 401+414

Welfare (only variables starting with “per”) = 503+504

International Peace (only variables starting with “per”) = 102+105+106

Example of Russian Parliamentary Election 2011 dataset

https://manifesto-project.wzb.eu/elections/659

Hypothesis tested on Party Manifestos’ database

http://people.tamu.edu/~mtkoch/Cheney%20final.pdf