A new and wide-ranging empirical overview of party policy in 47 modern democracies, including all of the new democracies of Eastern Europe.

It updates and radically extends Policy and Party Competition (1992), which established itself as a key mainstream data source for all political scientists exploring the policy positions of political parties.

This essential text is divided into three clear parts:

Part I introduces the study, themes and methodology

Part II deals in depth with the wide range of issues involved in estimating and analyzing the policy positions of key political actors.

Part III is the key data section that identifies key policy dimensions across the 47 countries, detailing their party positions and median legislators, and is complemented by graphical representations of each party system.

This book is an invaluable reference for all political scientists, particularly those interested in party policy and comparative politics.

Kenneth Benoit, Michael Laver

Introduction Part I. Policy and Party Competition 1. Policy dimensions and political preferences 2. "Policy spaces" and models of party competition Part II. Measuring Policy Positions 3. The expert surveys as a measurement tool 4. Measurement issues: bias and error correction in expert survey results 5. The Dimensionality of policy spaces 6. Comparing patterns of party competition Part III. Data Appendices References Index