In person icon Using VAA Data for Party Research

Abstract

The primary aim of creating Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) was to provide tools for voters to compare their policy positions with those of political parties, helping them navigate elections. However, new research avenues have emerged that explore the significant potential of VAA data for studying parties and party systems. This data enables researchers to assess the proximity of different parties, identify centripetal or centrifugal trends within party systems, uncover representation gaps, and more. Nevertheless, there are concerns that data collected for different purposes may not be suitable for analyzing parties and party systems. This panel invites papers that either theoretically evaluate the applicability of VAA data for party research or empirically use VAA data to address the questions mentioned above.

Title	Details
Populist Challenger Parties as Fillers of Representation Gaps at the Municipal Level? Analyzing Voter-Party Congruence Through a Voting Advice Application	View Paper Details
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Picking Up the Crumbs? Positions of Small and Marginal Parties in the German Political Landscape Using VAA Data	View Paper Details
Variations of Left-Wing Authoritarianism? The Local Foundation of the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW)	View Paper Details
Thicker Than Water? Pragmatism Vs. Ideology in European Parliamentary Groupings	View Paper Details