Decreased Ideological Polarization and Conflict in Western Europe? (DIPAC) Election Manifesto Data

Still, although this is a dominant and reoccurring thesis, we argue that it is largely unsubstantiated. Therefore, the goal of this project is to systematically compare the evolution of ideas and policies supplied by political parties, from the 1970s onwards, in eight Western European countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and United Kingdom.

The project aimed to answer the following two questions: To what extent are the ideas and policies of political parties converging or diverging in Western European party systems? Are changes in the parties’ ideas and policies initiated mainly by the parties, or are they adjusting to voter demand arising from social changes? Additionally, the project breaks new ground by testing central hypotheses of party system changes on unique data.