This book gives an up to date reference on the state of the art in this highly important methodological area, which is central both to theoretical models of party competition and to empirical accounts, whether these are case studies or comparative analyses. It looks at subjects including tracking estimates of public opinion and party policy intentions in Britain and the USA; the policy space of party manifestos; and party platforms and voters' perceptions. Its panel of respected contributors reviews the refinements which have been made to established techniques as well as considering the potential and early successes of computer coding.

PART I Overview; Chapter 1 Why should we estimate the policy positions of political actors?, Michael Laver; Chapter 2 Searching for the positions of political actors, Peter Mair; PART II Expert coded text analysis; Chapter 3 Manifesto research since 1979, Andrea Volkens; Chapter 4 Validating the Manifesto Research Group approach, Ian Budge; Chapter 5 Position and salience in the policies of political actors, Michael Laver; Chapter 6 A framework for analysing local party policy emphases in Scotland, Bodil Agasøster; Chapter 7 The policy space of party manifestos, Michael D. McDonald, Silvia M. Mendes; Chapter 8 Analysing party dynamics by taking Part Ially overlapping snapshots, Wouter van der Brug; Chapter 9 Estimating interparty policy distances from election programmes in Quebec, 1970-89, François Petry, Réjean Landry; PART III Computer coded text analysis; Chapter 10 A natural sentences approach to the computer coding of party manifestos, Leonard Ray; Chapter 11 Measurement of party positions on the basis of party programmes, media coverage and voter perceptions, Jan Kleinnijenhuis, Paul Pennings; Chapter 12 The computer coding of political texts, John Garry; Chapter 13 Estimating policy positions from the computer coding of political texts, Miranda de Vries, Daniela Giannetti, Lucy Mansergh; Chapter 14 Tracking estimates of public opinion and party policy intentions in Britain and the USA, Judith Bara; PART IV Conclusion; Chapter 15 How should we estimate the policy positions of political actors?, Michael Laver;