The Euromanifesto 2019 dataset is online

We are very pleased to announce that the 2019 Euromanifesto (EM) Project dataset is now published and available on GESIS (ZA7891)!

It is the fifth project phase of the overall 1979-2019 EM Project, which emerged from the Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP). The aim of the Euromanifesto project is to collect and analyze the euromanifestos (party programs) of all relevant political parties and European groups from all EU member states that participate in European Parliament elections. The analysis of election programs aims to measure the political positions and issue priorities of political parties by means of a uniform analytical framework.  Party manifestos set out the political ideas and goals of the parties. They are authoritative publications and represent the positions of the entire party and not just those of one faction or individual politicians. Although few voters actually read party manifestos, their contents are usually disseminated through the mass media. Consequently, they are a reliable medium for identifying the core positions of political parties.  

The 2019 wave of the Euromanifesto project contains 221 manifestos, which were analyzed by trained coders using a two-step coding procedure (unitizing and coding). Unitizing refers to the breaking down of a larger text into smaller units, so-called quasi-sentences. In the second step, each of these units of meaning was assigned its own category from the Euromanifestos Coding Scheme (EMCS). The EMCS V used in the current wave contains nine domains with different categories and occasional subcategories. Each category includes related topics so that changes over time can be measured across parties and countries. Thus, the coding procedure includes quantification (How many statements do the parties make?) and classification (What kind of statements do the parties make?) of party programs. The final step of the coding process is evaluation: each coder is asked to evaluate the content of a given manifesto after unifying and classifying it.