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Web Links to Content Analysis of European Party Manifestos

Estimating the position of political actors
The European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) held a Workshop in Mannheim on the analysis of party manifestos. Many of the papers are available here.
Euromanifestos Project
Hermann Schmidt and associates are seeking answers to this question: "What are the conditions under which political parties succeed in making their EP election manifestoes known to the voters? And, what is more, under which conditions become programmatic statements of competing parties relevant for participation and party choice in EP elections?" This project is ongoing and scheduled to end in 2004.
Electoral Programs of Political Parties
In 2002, Hans Dieter Klingemann taught a summer course at Oslo University on the analysis of party platforms. Here's part of his course description:
This course deals with what political parties tell voters in their election programs. Normally considered quite unimportant it will be demonstrated that this information helps to understand important political processes of representative democracy. What do political parties advertise? Do voters have a choice? Is there a left-right dimension? How important are programmatic similarities and differences for the formation of government coalitions? Is there a relationship of what parties say and what they do as government or opposition? These and related questions will be discussed in a comparative perspective offering empirical evidence both from parties of "old" and "new" democracies.