Title:      Bayesian Estimates of Party Left-Right Scores

Authors:    Jeremy Albright

Entrydate:  2008-07-11 10:39:33

Keywords:   

Abstract:   Spatial imagery is ubiquitous in
political science, yet comparativists disagree about the best
way to
determine where actors are located on latent issue dimensions
such as the
left-right scale. Although different methods have been proposed,
each
has its own limitations.  Scores derived from the Comparative
Manifestos Project (CMP) are almost always presented without
confidence intervals, expert surveys do not vary over time, and
text-based analyses are limited by the availability of relevant
documents. This paper argues that Bayesian simulation can be
used
with CMP data to produce valid left-right scores in a manner
that
offers important improvements over alternatives: 1) estimates
are
accompanied by measures of uncertainty; 2) prior information
such as
from expert surveys can be incorporated into the estimation, and
3)
the statistical model has a stronger theoretical basis that
generalizes to very different settings, such as the analysis of
roll
call votes in the American Congress.

http://polmeth.wustl.edu/retrieve.php?id=801

**********************************************************
             Political Methodology E-Mail List
   Editors: Melanie Goodrich, <[log in to unmask]>
            Delia Bailey, <[log in to unmask]>
**********************************************************
        Send messages to [log in to unmask]
  To join the list, cancel your subscription, or modify
           your subscription settings visit:

          http://polmeth.wustl.edu/polmeth.php

**********************************************************