The Two Faces of Party Ambiguity: A Comprehensive Model of Ambiguous Party Position Perceptions

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Dominic Nyhuis ◽  
Lukas F. Stoetzer
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Statistical Model ◽  
Item Response ◽  
Electoral Behavior ◽  
Comprehensive Model ◽  
Chapel Hill ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Party Position ◽  
Principal Factors ◽  
Party Characteristics

Abstract Recent research on electoral behavior has suggested that policy-informed vote choices are frequently obstructed by uncertainty about party positions. Given the significance of clear and distinct party platforms for meaningful representation, several studies have investigated the conditions under which parties are perceived as ambiguous. Yet previous studies have often relied on measures of perceived positional ambiguity that are fairly remote from the concept, casting doubt on their substantive conclusions. This article introduces a statistical model to estimate a comprehensive measure of perceived ambiguity that incorporates the two principal factors: non-positions and positional inconsistency. The two-faces model employs issue perceptions in an item response framework to explicitly parametrize the perceived ambiguity of party positions. The model is applied to data from the Chapel Hill Expert Survey and subsequently associated with party characteristics that drive perceptions of party ambiguity. The results suggest that (a) there are notable differences between the proposed and competing measures, highlighting the need to be mindful of the intricacies of political information processing in research on perceptions of ambiguity and (b) involuntary ambiguity might be an underexplored explanation for unclear party perceptions.

scholarly journals Comparing computational and non-computational methods in party position estimation: Finland, 2003–2019

2020 ◽  
pp. 135406882097460
Author(s):  
Juha Koljonen ◽  
Veikko Isotalo ◽  
Pertti Ahonen ◽  
Mikko Mattila
Keyword(s):  
Computational Methods ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Position Estimation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Party Manifestos ◽  
Chapel Hill ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Party Position ◽  
Textual Data ◽  
Survey Estimates

It is often claimed that computational methods for examining textual data give good enough party position estimates at a fraction of the costs of many non-computational methods. However, the conclusive testing of these claims is still far from fully accomplished. We compare the performance of two computational methods, Wordscores and Wordfish, and four non-computational methods in estimating the political positions of parties in two dimensions, a left-right dimension and a progressive-conservative dimension. Our data comprise electoral party manifestos written in Finnish and published in Finland. The non-computational estimates are composed of the Chapel Hill Expert Survey estimates, the Manifesto Project estimates, estimates deriving from survey-based data on voter perceptions of party positions, and estimates derived from electoral candidates’ replies to voting advice application questions. Unlike Wordfish, Wordscores generates relatively well-performing estimates for many of the party positions, but despite this does not offer an even match to the non-computational methods.

A Comprehensive Model for Medical Information Processing

1983 ◽  
Vol 22 (03) ◽  
pp. 124-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. H. Bemmel
Keyword(s):  
Intensive Care ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Medical Information ◽  
Computer Applications ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Comprehensive Model ◽  
Computers In Medicine ◽  
Medical Information Systems ◽  
Research And Education ◽  
The Many

At first sight, the many applications of computers in medicine—from payroll and registration systems to computerized tomography, intensive care and diagnostics—do make a rather chaotic impression. The purpose of this article is to propose a scheme or working model for putting medical information systems in order. The model comprises six »levels of complexity«, running parallel to dependence on human interaction. Several examples are treated to illustrate the scheme. The reason why certain computer applications are more frequently used than others is analyzed. It has to be strongly considered that the differences in complexity and dependence on human involvement are not accidental but fundamental. This has consequences for research and education which are also discussed.

scholarly journals Helping Citizens to Locate Political Parties in the Policy Space: a Dataset for the 2014 elections to the European Parliament

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-26
Author(s):  
Kostas Gemenis ◽  
Fernando Mendez ◽  
Jonathan Wheatley
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Estimation Method ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Policy Space ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Party Position ◽  
Voter Information

The authors present a dataset that contains the positions of 231 political parties across 28 countries on 30 policy issues that were considered salient for the 2014 elections to the European Parliament. The party position estimates were originally used in a voter information tool which compared the policy preferences of citizens to those of political parties. The paper discusses the estimation method in the context of the literature on estimating party positions, outlines the coding methodology, and introduces the value of the dataset for third-party users interested in studying political participation and representation.

Contagious Euroscepticism

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurits J Meijers
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
Panel Regression ◽  
Position Change ◽  
Expert Survey ◽  
Chapel Hill ◽  
Party Position ◽  
Mainstream Party

This article examines whether the support for Eurosceptic challenger parties influences mainstream party position change on European integration in Western Europe. The key finding is that Eurosceptic challenger support is capable of influencing mainstream position shifts on European integration provided that, on average, EU issues are regarded as important by the Eurosceptic challengers. Moreover, the centre-left is more affected by Eurosceptic contagion since it is influenced by both radical right and radical left Eurosceptic success, whereas the centre-right is only susceptible to radical right success. The empirical analyses are based on panel regression analysis employing expert survey data provided by Chapel Hill Expert Survey. The findings presented in this article have important implications for the study of party positioning on European integration as well as for the study of party competition in general.

Varieties of populist parties

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 981-1012
Author(s):  
Pippa Norris
Keyword(s):  
Party Competition ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
Chapel Hill ◽  
Lega Nord ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Issue Space

Can parties such as the Swedish Democrats, the Jobbik Movement for a Better Hungary, the UK Independence Party and the Italian Lega Nord all be classified consistently as part of the same family? Part I of this study summarizes the conceptual framework arguing that the traditional post-war Left-Right cleavage in the electorate and party competition has faded, overlaid by divisions over authoritarian-libertarianism and populism-pluralism. Building on this, part II discusses the pros and cons of alternative methods for gathering evidence useful to classify party positions. Part III describes how these are measured in this study, using Chapel Hill Expert Survey data in 2014 and 2017, and how they are mapped on a multidimensional issue space. Part IV compares European political parties on these scales – including Authoritarian-Populist parties – across a wide range of European countries. The conclusion in part V draws together the main findings and considers their implications.

Populist Rhetoric and Nativist Alarmism

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-76
Author(s):  
Barbara Donovan
Keyword(s):  
Party Systems ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
The Political ◽  
German Politics ◽  
Close Affinity ◽  
Chapel Hill ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
European Parties ◽  
Radical Right Parties

Using the 2017 Chapel Hill Expert Survey of party positions, this study compares the AfD with other European parties outside the political mainstream across several ideological/attitudinal dimensions. The paper explores the changing character of European party systems and multiple axes of party competition. It regards populism and nativism as distinct political phenomena, but as ones that are symbiotic and coupled together provide a particular powerful narrative. The paper finds that the AfD shares a close affinity with radical right parties in Europe but also emerges as one of Europe’s most populist and nativist parties. This explains the AfD’s affiliation with the Identity and Freedom Group in the European Parliament; it also supports the argument it is the blend of populist anti-elitism and nativist alarmism that has made the AfD the potent force in German politics that it is today.

scholarly journals Perceptions of parties’ left-right positions: The impact of salience strategies

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 664-674 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas M Meyer ◽  
Markus Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Know How ◽  
Chapel Hill ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
European Election ◽  
Voting Decisions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Insight Into

The left-right dimension is widely used by voters and parties as a ‘super-issue’ with flexible, varying meaning. Hence, it is important to know how voters place parties on the left-right dimension. We argue that voters infer left-right party positions from their positions on two key ideological subdimensions: economic and cultural issues. However, a subdimension should influence party placements on the left-right dimension more if the subdimension is important (1) to the party and (2) in the party system as a whole. In aggregate-level models using voter data from the 2014 European Election Study and party data from the 2014 Chapel Hill Expert Survey, we show that perceived left-right position of a party reflects in particular party positions on issue dimensions that are (1) more important to the party and (2) more salient in the party system. This finding provides insight into the sources of voter perceptions and has wider implications for our understanding of party competition, as we show how parties’ salience strategies can have consequences for position-based ideological perceptions and voting decisions.

scholarly journals Analyzing the cross-national comparability of party positions on the socio-cultural and EU dimensions in Europe

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Ryan Bakker ◽  
Seth Jolly ◽  
Jonathan Polk
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Cultural Dimension ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Core ◽  
Chapel Hill ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Common Scale ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Cross National

Abstract Using survey vignettes and scaling techniques, we estimate common socio-cultural and European integration dimensions for political parties across the member states of the European Union. Previous research shows that party placements on the economic left-right dimension are cross-nationally comparable across the EU; however, the socio-cultural dimension is more complex, with different issues forming the core of the dimension in different countries. The 2014 wave of the Chapel Hill Expert Survey included anchoring vignettes which we use as “bridge votes” to place parties from different countries on a common liberal/authoritarian dimension and a separate common scale for European integration. We estimate the dimensions using the Bayesian Aldrich–McKelvey technique. The resulting scales offer cross-nationally comparable, interval-level measures of a party's socio-cultural and EU ideological positions.

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