@article{LoweBenoitJankinetal., author = {Lowe, Will and Benoit, Kenneth and Jankin, Slava and Laver, Michael}, title = {Scaling Policy Preferences From Coded Political Texts}, series = {Legislative Studies Quarterly}, volume = {36}, journal = {Legislative Studies Quarterly}, number = {1}, doi = {10.1111/j.1939-9162.2010.00006.x}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-27945}, pages = {123 -- 155}, abstract = {Scholars estimating policy positions from political texts typically code words or sentences and then build left-right policy scales based on the relative frequencies of text units coded into different categories. Here we reexamine such scales and propose a theoretically and linguistically superior alternative based on the logarithm of odds- ratios. We contrast this scale with the current approach of the Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP), showing that our proposed logit scale avoids widely acknowledged flaws in previous approaches. We validate the new scale using independent expert surveys. Using existing CMP data, we show how to estimate more distinct policy dimensions, for more years, than has been possible before, and make this dataset publicly available. Finally, we draw some conclusions about the future design of coding schemes for political texts.}, language = {en} } @article{BenoitLaverLoweetal., author = {Benoit, Kenneth and Laver, Michael and Lowe, Will and Jankin, Slava}, title = {How to scale coded text units without bias: A response to Gemenis}, series = {Electoral Studies}, journal = {Electoral Studies}, number = {3}, edition = {31}, doi = {10.1016/j.electstud.2012.05.004}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-28033}, pages = {605 -- 608}, abstract = {Coding non-manifesto documents as if they were genuine policy platforms produced at election time clearly raises serious issues with error when these codings are used in the standard manner to estimate left-right policy positions. In addition to the long term solution of improving the document base of the Manifesto Project identified by Gemenis (2012), we argue that immediate gains in manifesto-based estimates of policy positions can be realised by using the confrontational logit scales from Lowe et al. (2011), which addresses the problems of scale content and scale construction that are exacerbated by but not unique to the problems found in proxy documents.}, language = {en} }