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. 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.
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:
Czech Republic |
Vlastimil Havlik, Masaryk University |
Denmark |
Christian Elmelund-Præstekær, University of Southern Denmark |
Germany |
Marc Debus, University of Mannheim |
Hungary |
Zsofia Papp, Hungarian Academy of Sciences |
The Netherlands |
Armen Hakhverdian, University of Amsterdam |
Poland |
Natalia Letki and Wojciech Rafalowski, University of Warsaw |
Portugal |
José Santana Pereira, University of Lisbon |
Spain |
Pablo Fernandez-Vazquez, University of Pittsburgh |
Sweden |
Stefan Dahlberg, University of Bergen |
United Kingdom |
Jane Green, Oxford University |