Manifesto Project Database project.wzb.eu/ project.wzb.eu/ Presented by Evgeniia Chirkova Milan, 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 used IdentificationData QualityElectoralProgrammatic Data Programmatic Dimension CountryCoder IDPercentage of votes gained Type of programRile (right-left) Date of Elections Manual/NoAbsolute number of seats gained by party Dataset origin (updated or no) Planned Economy Party identification code Code YearTotal 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”) = ( ) minus ( )  Planeco (only variables starting with “per”) =  Markeco (only variables starting with “per”) =  Welfare (only variables starting with “per”) =  International Peace (only variables starting with “per”) =

Example of Russian Parliamentary Election 2011 dataset

Hypothesis tested on Party Manifestos’ database df