Abstract
The chapter presents a Bayesian model for estimating ideological ambiguity of political parties from survey data. In the model, policy positions are defined as probability distributions over a policy space and survey-based party placements are treated as random draws from those distributions. A cross-classified random-effects model is employed to estimate ideological ambiguity, defined as the dispersion of the latent probability distribution. Furthermore, non-response patterns are incorporated as an additional source of information on ideological ambiguity. A Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm is provided for parameter estimation. The usefulness of the model is demonstrated using cross-national expert survey data on party platforms.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | Advances in Political Economy |
Subtitle of host publication | Institutions, Modelling and Empirical Analysis |
Publisher | Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg |
Pages | 369-382 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Volume | 9783642352393 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9783642352393 |
ISBN (Print) | 3642352383, 9783642352386 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 1 2013 |
Keywords
- Ambiguity
- Bayesian
- Ideological placement
- Latent variables
- Missing data
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Sciences(all)