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A Global Scale of Economic Left-Right Party Positions : Cross-National and Cross-Expert Perceptions of Party Placements

de la Cerda, Nicolás ; Bakker, Ryan ; Jolly, Seth ; Polk, Jonathan LU orcid ; Dassonneville, Ruth ; Koedam, Jelle ; Leslie, Patrick ; Shepherd, Jill and Zur, Roi (2025) In Journal of Politics
Abstract
We examine the cross-national comparability of expert placements of political parties
on the economic left-right dimension using a novel dataset combining data from Europe, Latin America, Australia, Israel, Canada, and the United States. Using anchoring vignettes and Bayesian Aldrich-McKelvey Scaling (BAM), we assess evidence of geographic and expert-level differential item functioning (DIF) in how experts interpret the left-right scale. We find statistically significant but substantively small variations in how experts perceive party positions cross-nationally, particularly in terms of directional bias and the spread of their ideological placements. While the correlation between “raw” survey scores and DIF-corrected estimates is high... (More)
We examine the cross-national comparability of expert placements of political parties
on the economic left-right dimension using a novel dataset combining data from Europe, Latin America, Australia, Israel, Canada, and the United States. Using anchoring vignettes and Bayesian Aldrich-McKelvey Scaling (BAM), we assess evidence of geographic and expert-level differential item functioning (DIF) in how experts interpret the left-right scale. We find statistically significant but substantively small variations in how experts perceive party positions cross-nationally, particularly in terms of directional bias and the spread of their ideological placements. While the correlation between “raw” survey scores and DIF-corrected estimates is high (0.992), we observe meaningful deviations for individual parties, with larger discrepancies between rather than within regions. These results indicate that the economic left-right dimension exhibits broad consistency in expert understanding across countries, yet researchers should still exercise caution when making cross-national comparisons, particularly across regions where expert perceptions show greater variation. (Less)
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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
in press
subject
keywords
Expert Surveys, Ideology, Left-Right, Bayesian Aldrich–McKelvey scaling
in
Journal of Politics
publisher
University of Chicago Press
ISSN
0022-3816
DOI
10.1086/736578
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
2ead2be5-7027-4687-abea-de824f70b02e
date added to LUP
2025-08-13 14:42:42
date last changed
2025-08-14 10:32:54
@article{2ead2be5-7027-4687-abea-de824f70b02e,
  abstract     = {{We examine the cross-national comparability of expert placements of political parties<br/>on the economic left-right dimension using a novel dataset combining data from Europe, Latin America, Australia, Israel, Canada, and the United States. Using anchoring vignettes and Bayesian Aldrich-McKelvey Scaling (BAM), we assess evidence of geographic and expert-level differential item functioning (DIF) in how experts interpret the left-right scale. We find statistically significant but substantively small variations in how experts perceive party positions cross-nationally, particularly in terms of directional bias and the spread of their ideological placements. While the correlation between “raw” survey scores and DIF-corrected estimates is high (0.992), we observe meaningful deviations for individual parties, with larger discrepancies between rather than within regions. These results indicate that the economic left-right dimension exhibits broad consistency in expert understanding across countries, yet researchers should still exercise caution when making cross-national comparisons, particularly across regions where expert perceptions show greater variation.}},
  author       = {{de la Cerda, Nicolás and Bakker, Ryan and Jolly, Seth and Polk, Jonathan and Dassonneville, Ruth and Koedam, Jelle and Leslie, Patrick and Shepherd, Jill and Zur, Roi}},
  issn         = {{0022-3816}},
  keywords     = {{Expert Surveys; Ideology; Left-Right; Bayesian Aldrich–McKelvey scaling}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{University of Chicago Press}},
  series       = {{Journal of Politics}},
  title        = {{A Global Scale of Economic Left-Right Party Positions : Cross-National and Cross-Expert Perceptions of Party Placements}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/225310707/De_la_Cerda_et_al_JOP_Accepted.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1086/736578}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}