Comparative Campaign Dynamics Dataset

This collection of data sets provides information on ideological cohesion and ambiguity of party positions along with information on framing effects by competing parties and the media. The data covers the policy standpoints parties and their representatives have communicated in the media along with valence-related statements, such as references to competence or integrity. Coding was based on pre-electoral coverage of major newspapers for two recent (national) electoral campaigns in ten European countries. The three separate data sets focus on the statements parties have made referring to themselves, the statements they have made referring to their competitors and the statements the newspapers have made referring to the parties.

Related Research:

Jung, Jae-Hee and Zeynep Somer-Topcu. United We Stand, Divided We Fall? The Effects of Parties’ Brexit Rhetoric on Voters' Perceptions of Party Positions. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties. Online published on November 4, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/17457289.2020.1839470

Somer-Topcu, Zeynep, Margit Tavits, and Markus Baumann. Does Party Rhetoric Affect Voter Perceptions of Party Positions? Electoral Studies. Online Published on April 9, 2020.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2020.102153

Somer-Topcu, Zeynep, and Margit Tavits. 2020. Message Distortion as a Campaign Strategy: Does Rival Party Distortion of Focal Party Position Affect Voters?

Somer-Topcu, Zeynep, and Daniel Weitzel. 2020. Valence Rhetoric and Vote Choice: How do Valence Attacks Affect Vote Choice?

Somer-Topcu, Zeynep, and Laron Williams. 2020. The Electoral Consequences of Message Inconsistencies: How do Changes from Manifestos to Campaign Positions Affect Party Performance?

Baumann, Markus, Marc Debus and Martin Gross. 2017. Strength of weakness? Intra-party heterogeneity, diverging coalition preferences and coalition negotiation outcomes in the German states. Politische Vierteljahresschrift, 58 (2), 179-204.

Baumann, Markus, Marc Debus and Martin Gross. 2018. Economic hardship and unemployment policy saliency in parties’ election campaign statements.

Baumann, Markus, Marc Debus and Martin Gross. 2019. Strategic issue emphasis in parties’ election campaign statements. Party Politics, DOI: 10.1177/1354068819864091

Havlík, Vlastimil. 2019. Technocratic Populism and Political Illiberalism in Central Europe. Problems of Post-Communism, DOI: 10.1080/10758216.2019.1580590.

Jung, Jae-Hee and Margit Tavits. 2018. Valence Attacks Harm the Electoral Performance of the Left but not the Right.

Rafałowski, Wojciech. 2019. Parties’ Issue Emphasis Strategies on Facebook. East European Politics and Societies, DOI: 10.1177/0888325419859632.

Somer-Topcu, Zeynep, Margit Tavits, and Markus Baumann. 2017. Do Election Campaigns Affect Voter Perceptions of Party Positions?

Somer-Topcu, Zeynep and Margit Tavits. 2018. Does Message Distortion by Rival Parties Affect Voters?

Somer-Topcu, Zeynep and Daniel Weitzel. 2018. Campaign Valence Rhetoric and Vote Choice in Europe: How do Self-Praises and Valence Attacks Affect Vote Choice?

Data Access:
[codebook] Where Is My Party? Determinants of Voter Agreement about the Ideological Positions of Political Parties

[dataset] "Self_v1" (parties talking about themselves) [.dta, 4.48 MB]

[dataset] "Other_v1" (parties talking about other parties) [.dta, 3.18 MB]

[dataset] "Journalist_v1" (journalists talking about parties) [.dta, 5.15 MB]

[dataset] Country File: Czech Republic" [.csv, 4.87 MB]

[dataset] Country File: Denmark [.csv, 4.15 MB]

[dataset] Country File: Germany [.csv, 3.77 MB]

[dataset] Country File: Hungary [.csv, 3.75 MB]

[dataset] Country File: Netherlands [.csv, 3.55 MB]

[dataset] Country File: Poland [.csv, 4.78 MB]

[dataset] Country File: Portugal [.csv, 4.34 MB]

[dataset] Country File: Spain [.csv, 3.65 MB]

[dataset] Country File: Sweden [.csv, 5.29 MB]

[dataset] Country File: United Kingdom (2005) [.csv, 1.78 MB]

[dataset] Country File: United Kingdom (2010) [.csv, 2.36 MB]

[dataset] Country File: United Kingdom (2015) [.csv, 2.66 MB]

Country Experts: