Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

5-2003

Abstract

We present a new way of extracting policy positions from political texts that treats texts not as discourses to be understood and interpreted but rather, as data in the form of words. We compare this approach to previous methods of text analysis and use it to replicate published estimates of the policy positions of political parties in Britain and Ireland, on both economic and social policy dimensions. We “export” the method to a non-English-language environment, analyzing the policy positions of German parties, including the PDS as it entered the former West German party system. Finally, we extend its application beyond the analysis of party manifestos, to the estimation of political positions from legislative speeches. Our “language-blind” word scoring technique successfully replicates published policy estimates without the substantial costs of time and labor that these require. Furthermore, unlike in any previous method for extracting policy positions from political texts, we provide uncertainty measures for our estimates, allowing analysts to make informed judgments of the extent to which differences between two estimated policy positions can be viewed as significant or merely as products of measurement error.

Discipline

Models and Methods | Political Science

Research Areas

Political Science

Publication

American Political Science Review

Volume

97

Issue

2

First Page

311

Last Page

331

ISSN

0003-0554

Identifier

10.1017/S0003055403000698

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Copyright Owner and License

Publisher

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055403000698

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