Evaluating Transnational Political Change and Policy Innovation in European Election Manifestos
(2024) SIMZ51 20241Graduate School
- Abstract
- This thesis is structured around one central question: This study will determine the extent to which political change in the discourse topics of European Political Groups (EPGs) can be traced in European election manifestos through the use of Structural Topic Modeling (STM). This thesis asserts that there is a significant gap in our understanding of how to assess Euromanifestos and of the macrostructures of European Political Groups (EPGs). This research selects the case of European election manifestos and combines the quantitative method of topic modeling with its qualitative counterpart of inductive content coding. This makes it a mixed-method research design. The application of Structural Topic Modeling proved an effective method for... (More)
- This thesis is structured around one central question: This study will determine the extent to which political change in the discourse topics of European Political Groups (EPGs) can be traced in European election manifestos through the use of Structural Topic Modeling (STM). This thesis asserts that there is a significant gap in our understanding of how to assess Euromanifestos and of the macrostructures of European Political Groups (EPGs). This research selects the case of European election manifestos and combines the quantitative method of topic modeling with its qualitative counterpart of inductive content coding. This makes it a mixed-method research design. The application of Structural Topic Modeling proved an effective method for identifying the underlying semantic structures within the extensive corpus of European election manifestos. It provides a macro-level description and is an optimal instrument for identifying topic evolution. The findings of this study clearly show that all of the examined topics exhibited characteristics of change. In particular, emerging challenger parties frequently seek to exert control by attempting to induce change. These changes were primarily driven by global events that transcend national or European borders and topic innovation. (Less)
- Popular Abstract
- This thesis is structured around one central question: This study will determine the extent to which political change in the discourse topics of European Political Groups (EPGs) can be traced in European election manifestos through the use of Structural Topic Modeling (STM). This thesis asserts that there is a significant gap in our understanding of how to assess Euromanifestos and of the macrostructures of European Political Groups (EPGs). This research selects the case of European election manifestos and combines the quantitative method of topic modeling with its qualitative counterpart of inductive content coding. This makes it a mixed-method research design. The application of Structural Topic Modeling proved an effective method for... (More)
- This thesis is structured around one central question: This study will determine the extent to which political change in the discourse topics of European Political Groups (EPGs) can be traced in European election manifestos through the use of Structural Topic Modeling (STM). This thesis asserts that there is a significant gap in our understanding of how to assess Euromanifestos and of the macrostructures of European Political Groups (EPGs). This research selects the case of European election manifestos and combines the quantitative method of topic modeling with its qualitative counterpart of inductive content coding. This makes it a mixed-method research design. The application of Structural Topic Modeling proved an effective method for identifying the underlying semantic structures within the extensive corpus of European election manifestos. It provides a macro-level description and is an optimal instrument for identifying topic evolution. The findings of this study clearly show that all of the examined topics exhibited characteristics of change. In particular, emerging challenger parties frequently seek to exert control by attempting to induce change. These changes were primarily driven by global events that transcend national or European borders and topic innovation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9171772
- author
- Wolf, Leon Oliver LU
- supervisor
-
- Nils Droste LU
- organization
- alternative title
- Tracing the Evolution of Political Discourse in Euromanifestos Through Structural Topic Modeling
- course
- SIMZ51 20241
- year
- 2024
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Structural Topic Modeling, STM, European Political Groups, EPG, European Parliament, EP, Euromanifesto, Election
- language
- English
- id
- 9171772
- date added to LUP
- 2024-09-13 14:46:08
- date last changed
- 2024-09-13 14:46:08
@misc{9171772,
abstract = {{This thesis is structured around one central question: This study will determine the extent to which political change in the discourse topics of European Political Groups (EPGs) can be traced in European election manifestos through the use of Structural Topic Modeling (STM). This thesis asserts that there is a significant gap in our understanding of how to assess Euromanifestos and of the macrostructures of European Political Groups (EPGs). This research selects the case of European election manifestos and combines the quantitative method of topic modeling with its qualitative counterpart of inductive content coding. This makes it a mixed-method research design. The application of Structural Topic Modeling proved an effective method for identifying the underlying semantic structures within the extensive corpus of European election manifestos. It provides a macro-level description and is an optimal instrument for identifying topic evolution. The findings of this study clearly show that all of the examined topics exhibited characteristics of change. In particular, emerging challenger parties frequently seek to exert control by attempting to induce change. These changes were primarily driven by global events that transcend national or European borders and topic innovation.}},
author = {{Wolf, Leon Oliver}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Evaluating Transnational Political Change and Policy Innovation in European Election Manifestos}},
year = {{2024}},
}