190 research outputs found
Replication Data for: "Understanding State Preferences With Text As Data: Introducing the UN General Debate Corpus"
No full textEvery year at the United Nations, member states deliver statements during the General Debate discussing major issues in world politics. These speeches provide invaluable information on governments' perspectives and preferences on a wide range of issues, but have largely been overlooked in the study of international politics. This paper introduces a new dataset consisting of over 7,300 country statements from 1970-2014. We demonstrate how the UN General Debate Corpus (UNGDC) can be used to derive country positions on different policy dimensions using text analytic methods. The paper provides applications of these estimates, demonstrating the contribution the UNGDC can make to the study of international politics
Replication Data for: "Understanding State Preferences With Text As Data: Introducing the UN General Debate Corpus"
No full textEvery year at the United Nations, member states deliver statements during the General Debate discussing major issues in world politics. These speeches provide invaluable information on governments' perspectives and preferences on a wide range of issues, but have largely been overlooked in the study of international politics. This paper introduces a new dataset consisting of over 7,300 country statements from 1970-2014. We demonstrate how the UN General Debate Corpus (UNGDC) can be used to derive country positions on different policy dimensions using text analytic methods. The paper provides applications of these estimates, demonstrating the contribution the UNGDC can make to the study of international politics
Replication Data for: A Conservative Revolution: The electoral response to economic crisis in Ireland
No full text“A Conservative Revolution: The electoral response to economic crisis in Ireland.” (with Michael Marsh), Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 2014, 24(2): 160-179
Replication data for: The Manifesto Project data extended to include the logit scales and standard errors
No full textThis dataset contains original Manifesto Project data extended to include the logit scales introduced in William Lowe, Kenneth Benoit, Slava Mikhaylov, and Michael Laver. 2011. “Scaling Policy Preferences From Coded Political Texts.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 26(1, Feb): 123-155. The dataset also includes estimations of standard errors introduced in Benoit, Kenneth, Michael Laver, and Slava Mikhaylov. 2009. “Treating Words as Data with Error: Estimating Uncertainty in Text Statements of Policy Positions”. American Journal of Political Science 53 (2): 495–513
Database of Parliamentary Speeches in Ireland, 1919-2013
No full textWe present a database of parliamentary debates that contains the complete record of parliamentary speeches from Dáil Éireann, the lower house and principal chamber of the Irish parliament, from 1919 to 2013. In addition, the database contains background information on all TDs (Teachta Dála, members of parliament), such as their party affiliations, constituencies and office positions. The current version of the database includes close to 4.5 million speeches from 1,178 TDs. The speeches were downloaded from the official parliament website and further processed and parsed. Background information on TDs was collected from the member database of the parliament website. Data on cabinet positions (ministers and junior ministers) was collected from the official website of the government. A record linkage algorithm and human coders were used to match TDs and ministers
Database of Parliamentary Speeches in Ireland, 1919-2013
No full textWe present a database of parliamentary debates that contains the complete record of parliamentary speeches from Dáil Éireann, the lower house and principal chamber of the Irish parliament, from 1919 to 2013. In addition, the database contains background information on all TDs (Teachta Dála, members of parliament), such as their party affiliations, constituencies and office positions. The current version of the database includes close to 4.5 million speeches from 1,178 TDs. The speeches were downloaded from the official parliament website and further processed and parsed. Background information on TDs was collected from the member database of the parliament website. Data on cabinet positions (ministers and junior ministers) was collected from the official website of the government. A record linkage algorithm and human coders were used to match TDs and ministers
Replication Data for: Intergovernmental engagement on health impacts of climate change
No full text Objective. To examine countries’ engagement with the health impacts of climate change in their formal statements to intergovernmental organizations, and the factors driving engagement.
Methods. We obtained the texts of countries’ annual statements in United Nations (UN) general debates from 2000 to 2019 and their nationally determined contributions at the Paris Agreement in 2016. To measure countries’ engagement, we used a keyword-in-context text search with relevant search terms to count the total number of references to the relationship of health to climate change. We used a machine learning model (random forest predictions) to identify the most important country-level predictors of engagement. The predictors included political and economic factors, health outcomes, climate change-related variables and membership of political negotiating groups in the UN.
Findings. For both UN general debate statements and nationally determined contributions, low- and middle-income countries discussed the health impacts of climate change much more than did high-income countries. The most important predictors of engagement were health outcomes (infant mortality, maternal deaths, life expectancy), countries’ income levels (gross domestic product per capita), and fossil fuel consumption. Membership of political negotiating groups (such as Group of 77 and Small Island Developing States) was a less important predictor.
Conclusion. Our analysis indicated a global North–South division in engagement with health and climate change. Countries who carry the heaviest health burdens but lack necessary resources to address the impacts of climate change are shouldering responsibility for reminding the global community of the implications of climate change for people’s health
Replication Data for: Engagement with health in national climate change commitments under the Paris Agreement
No full textBackground: Instituted under the Paris Agreement, Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) outline countries’ plans for mitigating and adapting to climate change. They are the primary policy instrument for protecting people’s health in the face of rising global temperatures. However, evidence on engagement with health in the NDCs is limited.
Methods: We analysed the NDCs in the UNFCCC registry submitted by 185 countries. Using content analysis and natural language processing (NLP) methods, we developed measures of health engagement. Multivariate regression analyses examined whether country-level factors (e.g. population size, GDP, climate-related exposures) were associated with greater health engagement. Using NLP methods, we compared health engagement with other climate-related challenges (economy, energy, agriculture) and examined broader differences in the terms used in countries with higher and lower engagement.
Findings: Countries making no mention of health in their NDCs are clustered in the richer Global North while greater health engagement is concentrated in the Global South. Lower GDP per capita and being a Small Island Development State were associated with greater health engagement. In addition, greater population exposure to temperature change and ambient air pollution were associated with more health coverage. Variation in health engagement is greater than for other climate-related issues, and reflects wider differences in countries’ approaches to the NDCs.
Interpretation: A focus on health in the NDCs is patterned in line with broader global inequalities. Poorer and climate-vulnerable countries that contribute least to climate change are more likely to engage with health, while richer countries anchor their NDCs in non-health sectors such as energy and the economy.
Funding: This work was in part funded through an unrestricted grant from the Wellcome Trust and supported by ESRC grant number ES/S012257/1
Replication Data for Intra-Cabinet Politics and Fiscal Governance in Times of Austerity
No full textIn the context of recent economic and financial crisis in Europe, questions about the power of the core executive to control fiscal outcomes are more important than ever. Why are some governments more effective in controlling spending while others fall prey to excessive overspending by individual cabinet ministers? We approach this question by lifting the veil of collective cabinet responsibility and focusing on intra-cabinet decision making around budgetary allocation. Using the contributions of individual cabinet members during budget debates in Ireland, we estimate their positions on a latent dimension that represents their relative levels of support or opposition to the cabinet leadership. We find some evidence that ministers who are close to the finance minister receive a larger budget share, but under worsening macro-economic conditions closeness to the prime minister is a better predictor for budget allocations. Our results highlight potential fragility of the fiscal authority delegation mechanism in adverse economic environment
Replication Data for: 'Power Plays and Balancing Acts: The Paradoxical Effects of Chinese Trade on African Foreign Policy Positions'
No full textReplication material for:
Pádraig Carmody, Niheer Dasandi & Slava Jankin Mikhaylov (2019) 'Power Plays and Balancing Acts: The Paradoxical Effects of Chinese Trade on African Foreign Policy Positions', Political Studies, forthcoming
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