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ABSTRACT
This article proposes an innovative coding scheme for the content analysis of party manifestos, one designed to estimate party strategies on the territorial dimension and based on a solid theoretical framework. It builds on existing scholarly efforts on party positioning, while adding further theoretical and methodological insights. The proposed coding scheme first conceives of party strategies as the combination of three tools, namely the manipulation of salience and positioning and the framing of policy preferences. Second, it points out the importance of distinguishing between purposely vague and ‘blurred' positioning and ‘contradictory' but clear and nuanced positioning.
The functioning of this content analysis framework is illustrated through its application to Italian party manifestos issued between 1963 and 2013. Their analysis provides an overview of the substantive research questions that can be addressed with this coding scheme. This article also illustrates the potential of the instrument, which can be extended to policy dimensions other than the territorial one.
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank Dr Emanuele Massetti and the three anonymous reviewers, whose insightful comments and suggestions helped me to revise the article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. The concept of the territorial dimension identifies the entire set of (territorial) issues concerning the redistribution of powers and competencies, as well as cultural, linguistic and ethnic differences across territorial levels (i.e. local, regional) within a nation-state (Basile, Citation2014).
2. On the use of party manifestos as the best sources from which to infer the preferences of political parties, see Budge (Citation1987: 18) and Volkens et al. (Citation2001: 34).
3. For instance, significant congress reports issued before general elections, such as the ‘Manifesto of Fiuggi’ by Alleanza Nazionale (Citation1996).
4. This coding scheme follows the general rules for the division of documents into quasi-sentences that have been laid out by the Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP) group (Volkens, Citation2001), as well as by the Comparative Agenda Project (CAP). In both cases, the QS should be a unit of significance by itself: once a statement has been split, it should still be understandable and express a meaningful concept. The main difference between the rules of CMP and those of the CAP is that the latter tend to encourage more division than the former.
5. The QSs coded under the Territorial Dimension category are those statements concerning the territorial organization of the state, the distribution of power and resources across administrative layers, the state–regions relationships, the coordination and control of the state over subnational entities, the state's financial aid to regions and local authorities, and statements dealing with cultural aspects of regional and local minorities.
6. Short for Territorial Issues Dataset. Available upon request from the author.
7. The CMP categories measuring the territorial dimension are Per301 and Per302. For their definitions, consult Codebook version 2015a, available at: https://manifestoproject.wzb.eu/datasets (last accessed on: 28 December 2015). The code for territorial issues in CAP is 2001; for its definition, consult Italian Codebook, version 4.0, available at: http://italianpolicyagendas.weebly.com/codebook--data.html (last accessed on 28 December 2015).
8. In some cases, the TERRISS_Dataset uses original manifestos that have been retrieved directly from the archives of political parties and coded for the first time.
9. The number of statements dealing with territorial issues has been derived by comparing the percentages provided by variables Per301 and Per302 with the variable accounting for the total number of Quasi-sentences coded in the entire document. The numbers thus obtained have been used according to the same formula to calculate directional certainty.
10. The lower N for this correlation is due to the higher number of documents with no statements coded as territorial in the CMP compared to the TERRISS_Dataset.
11. Literature does not provide a clear threshold of relevance for policy dimensions in party manifestos. Nevertheless, according to Alonso (Citation2012: 67) an average saliency score above 2% can be considered as relevant.
12. In that election the LN did not issue a manifesto on its own as it endorsed the coalition document of the Popolo della Libertà.