Expert judgements of the left-right location of political parties: A comparative longitudinal study

West European Politics

Volumn 21, Issue 2, 1998, Pages 63-94

  Knutsen, Oddbjørn ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

NATIONAL POLITICS; PARTY COMPETITION; POLITICAL SYSTEM;

EUROPE, (WEST);

EID: 0031858187     PISSN: 01402382     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01402389808425245     Document Type: Review

References (43)

1. Dieter Fuchs and Hans-Dieter Klingemann, 'The Left-Right Schema,' in M. Kent Jennings and Jan van Deth et al. (eds.) Continuities in Political Action (Berlin and NY: de Gruyter 1990) p.205; Ronald Inglehart and Hans-Dieter Klingemann, 'Party Identification, Ideological Preference and the left-right Dimension among Western Mass Publics', in Ian Budge, Ivor Crewe and Dennis Farlie (eds.) Party Identification and Beyond. Representations of Voting and Party Competition (London: John Wiley 1976) pp.244-5.
2. Dieter Fuchs and Hans-Dieter Klingemann, 'The Left-Right Schema,' in M. Kent Jennings and Jan van Deth et al. (eds.) Continuities in Political Action (Berlin and NY: de Gruyter 1990) p.205; Ronald Inglehart and Hans-Dieter Klingemann, 'Party Identification, Ideological Preference and the left-right Dimension among Western Mass Publics', in Ian Budge, Ivor Crewe and Dennis Farlie (eds.) Party Identification and Beyond. Representations of Voting and Party Competition (London: John Wiley 1976) pp.244-5.
3. Michael-John Morgan, 'The Modelling of Governmental Coalition Formation: a Policy-Based Approach with Interval Measurement' (U. of Michigan) PhD thesis, reported in Michael Laver and Norman Schofield, Multiparty Government: The Politics of Coalitions in Europe (Oxford: OUP 1990) pp.248, 250.
4. John Huber and Ronald Inglehart, 'Expert Interpretations of Party Space and Party Location in 42 Societies', Party Politics 1/1 (1995) p.81.
5. John D. Huber, 'Values and Partisanship in Left-Right Orientations: Measuring Ideology', European Journal of Political Research 17 (1989) pp.611-15; Oddbjørn Knutsen, 'Value Orientations, Political Conflicts and Left-Right Identification: A Comparative Study', European Journal of Political Science 28/1 (1995) pp.63-93; Giacomo Sani and Giovanni Sartori 'Polarization, Fragmentation and Competition in Western Democracies', in Hans Daalder and Peter Mair (eds.), Western European Party Systems: Continuity and Change (Beverly Hills and London: Sage 1983) pp.310-16.
6. John D. Huber, 'Values and Partisanship in Left-Right Orientations: Measuring Ideology', European Journal of Political Research 17 (1989) pp.611-15; Oddbjørn Knutsen, 'Value Orientations, Political Conflicts and Left-Right Identification: A Comparative Study', European Journal of Political Science 28/1 (1995) pp.63-93; Giacomo Sani and Giovanni Sartori 'Polarization, Fragmentation and Competition in Western Democracies', in Hans Daalder and Peter Mair (eds.), Western European Party Systems: Continuity and Change (Beverly Hills and London: Sage 1983) pp.310-16.
7. John D. Huber, 'Values and Partisanship in Left-Right Orientations: Measuring Ideology', European Journal of Political Research 17 (1989) pp.611-15; Oddbjørn Knutsen, 'Value Orientations, Political Conflicts and Left-Right Identification: A Comparative Study', European Journal of Political Science 28/1 (1995) pp.63-93; Giacomo Sani and Giovanni Sartori 'Polarization, Fragmentation and Competition in Western Democracies', in Hans Daalder and Peter Mair (eds.), Western European Party Systems: Continuity and Change (Beverly Hills and London: Sage 1983) pp.310-16.
8. See Francis G. Castles and Peter Mair, 'Left-Right Political Scales: Some "Expert Judgements"', European Journal of Political Research 12 (1984) pp.73-88; Huber and Inglehart (note3) pp.73-111.
9. The location of the parties on the left-right scale was one of several questions in the survey. The respondents were also asked to identify the key issues that divided left and right, and whether there was some other important dimension in addition to the left-right dimension; see Huber and Inglehart (note 3) p.91.
10. In addition to the 13 western European countries in Castles and Mair's study, Huber and Inglehart's study includes data from Iceland, Portugal and Switzerland.
11. 11 * 0.9 + 1.0. Castles and Mair report the average scores with one decimal place, while Huber and Inglehart report two decimal places. This difference is reflected in the tables in this article. The scores are reported with one and two decimal places, respectively, but with only one decimal places when differences between the scores in 1982 and 1993 are calculated.
12. One deficiency in both questionnaires is that they did not include pre-defined lists of parties. In Huber and Inglehart's study, the respondents were even asked to place 'the main parties' on the scale. This implies that some parties may have been omitted because few respondents placed them on the scale, and this may have caused the number of parties placed on the scale to vary. This is particularly problematic for the data from 1993 for a few parties, but it is generally a problem that we do not have data for all the parties in both data sets. To calculate the left-right mean scores in given party systems (see Figure 1 and Table 6), it is essential that the parties accounted for as large a percentage of the votes in elections close to 1982 and 1993 as possible. It is, therefore, important that all significant parties are reported in the two data sets. In most countries the parties for which the mean scores are reported, account for 95 per cent or more of the vote in both data sets. In only four countries, namely Ireland, Italy, Spain and France was the support lower than 95 per cent in 1993. Apart from France (89.4 per cent), the support in the other countries was above 90 per cent (91-92 per cent).
13. See Ronald Inglehart, 'The Changing Structure of Political Cleavages in Western Societies', in Russell J. Dalton, Scott C. Flanagan and Paul Allen Beck (eds.) Electoral Change in Advanced Industrial Societies (Princeton UP 1984) p.25; Oddbjørn Knutsen, 'Left-Right Materialist Value Orientations', in Jan van Deth and Elinor Scarbrough (eds.) The Impact of Values, Vol.4 in the European Science Foundation series 'Beliefs in Government' (Oxford: OUP 1995).
14. See Ronald Inglehart, 'The Changing Structure of Political Cleavages in Western Societies', in Russell J. Dalton, Scott C. Flanagan and Paul Allen Beck (eds.) Electoral Change in Advanced Industrial Societies (Princeton UP 1984) p.25; Oddbjørn Knutsen, 'Left-Right Materialist Value Orientations', in Jan van Deth and Elinor Scarbrough (eds.) The Impact of Values, Vol.4 in the European Science Foundation series 'Beliefs in Government' (Oxford: OUP 1995).
15. Ronald Inglehart, The Silent Revolution - Changing Values and Political Styles among Western Publics (Princeton UP 1977); Idem, Cultural Shift in Advanced Industrial Society (Ibid. 1990).
16. Ronald Inglehart, The Silent Revolution - Changing Values and Political Styles among Western Publics (Princeton UP 1977); Idem, Cultural Shift in Advanced Industrial Society (Ibid. 1990).
17. Scott C. Flanagan, 'Changing Values in Advanced Industrial Societies - Inglehart's Silent Revolution from the Perspective of Japanese Findings', Comparative Political Studies 14 (1982) pp.403-44; Idem, 'Value Changes in Industrial Societies', American Political Science Review 81 (1987) pp. 1303-19.
18. Scott C. Flanagan, 'Changing Values in Advanced Industrial Societies - Inglehart's Silent Revolution from the Perspective of Japanese Findings', Comparative Political Studies 14 (1982) pp.403-44; Idem, 'Value Changes in Industrial Societies', American Political Science Review 81 (1987) pp. 1303-19.
19. Herbert Kitschelt, The Transformation of European Social Democracy (Cambridge: CUP 1994); Idem, The Radical Right in Western Europe - A Comparative Analysis (Ann Arbor: U. of Michigan Press 1996).
20. Herbert Kitschelt, The Transformation of European Social Democracy (Cambridge: CUP 1994); Idem, The Radical Right in Western Europe - A Comparative Analysis (Ann Arbor: U. of Michigan Press 1996).
21. Inglehart, Cultural Shift (note 11 ) pp.275-7; Kitschelt, Radical Right (note 13) Chs. 1-2.
22. Inglehart, Cultural Shift (note 11 ) pp.275-7; Kitschelt, Radical Right (note 13) Chs. 1-2.
23. Inglehart, ibid, pp.289-300; Ronald Inglehart and Jacques-René Rabier, 'Political Realignment in Advanced Industrial Society: From Class-Based Politics to Quality-of-Life Politics', Government and Opposition 21 (1986) pp.472-73.
24. Inglehart, ibid, pp.289-300; Ronald Inglehart and Jacques-René Rabier, 'Political Realignment in Advanced Industrial Society: From Class-Based Politics to Quality-of-Life Politics', Government and Opposition 21 (1986) pp.472-73.
25. Herbert Kitschelt and Staf Hellemans, 'The Left-Right Semantics and the New Politics Cleavage', Comparative Political Studies 23 (1990) pp.210-38; Knutsen (note 4) pp.63-93.
26. Huber and Inglehart (note 3) pp.83-90.
27. Ibid, p.78, Table 1.
28. A description of the ten categories is presented in Inglehart and Huber (note 3) p.78, Table 1. Another category that is part of the economic meanings of the left-right dimension is named 'property rights'. However, there are no issues grouped in that category in any of the 13 countries. The other categories are 'centralisation of power', 'isolation versus internationalism', 'conservatism versus change', 'constitutional reform' and 'national defense'. From the description of the last category, it is evident that it could be grouped in the New Politics group, but some of the issues reflect more traditional economic left-right concerns, for example defence spending. This category was mentioned by experts in only three of the countries: Austria (14 per cent), Britain and Germany (both 2 per cent).
29. 'Authority' and 'xenophobia' were of equal importance in Belgium.
30. Oddbjørn Knutsen 'Value Orientations and Party Choice: A Comparative Study of the Relationship between Five Value Orientations and Voting Intention in thirteen West European Democracies', in Oscar W. Gabriel and Jürgen W. Falter (eds.) Wahlen und politische Einstellungen in westlichen Demokratien (Frankfurt: Peter Lang 1996) pp.258-66.
31. The table illustrates that, in some countries, parties other than those that belong to the three 'new' party families are 'new' in the sense that they have recently been established, but they do not belong to any of the new party families. Most of them have, in fact, been grouped into some of the old party families. When I use the terms old and new party families or only old and new parties below, I refer to the party families, not individual parties.
32. In order to calculate the figures in Table 3 and the mean scores of the party system in Figure 1 and Table 6, it is necessary to obtain the percentages of the vote for the various parties in the closest elections. As a rule, when a general election was held in 1982 or 1993, I have relied on only that election. Where the year was not an election year, I have calculated the average support in the closest elections, held before and after 1982 or 1993.
33. The parts of Table 3A and Table 4B that include only the same parties control for the fact that parties for which I have data for only one point in time might misrepresent the average score for cross-time comparisons.
34. Michael Steed and Peter Humphreys, 'Identifying Liberal Parties', in Emil J. Kirchner (ed.) Liberal Parties in Western Democracies (Cambridge: CUP 1988) pp.416-17.
35. R.E.M. Irving, 'Christian Democracy in Post-War Europe: Conservatism Writ-Large or Distinctive Political Phenomenon?', West European Politics 2/1 (Jan. 1979) pp.53-68.
36. Neil Elder, Alistair H. Thomas and David Arter, The Consensual Democracies? The Government and Politics of the Scandinavian States (Oxford: Martin Robertson 1983) pp.30-1.
37. Irving (note 26) pp.54, 66; Wolfgang C. Müller and Barbara Steininger, 'Christian Democracy in Austria: The Austrian People's Party', in David Hanley (ed.), Christian Democracy in Europe - a Comparative Perspective (London: Pinter 1994) p.95.
38. Elder, et al. (note 27) pp.39, 42.
39. Kitschelt (note 13) p.2.
40. Kitschelt (note 13) pp.30-9, 149-206.
41. The figures for Belgium are based on the Flemish Volksunie, while the other two ethnic parties FDF and RW are not included since I lack data from 1993. For 1982 there appear to be large differences in the left-right placement of the three ethnic parties (see Figure 1), Volksunie to the right, FDF in the centre and RW to the left.
42. This is done by simple multiplying the left-right placement of each party by the party's share of the vote expressed as a proportion, then summing these figures for the various parties.
43. This is done by first multiplying the left-right score for each party by the voter support for the party for in the early 1980s and early 1990s, then comparing the scores for each party for the two time points.