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European Journal of Political Research

Left-right political scales
Journal European Journal of Political Research
Publisher Springer Netherlands
ISSN 0304-4130 (Print) 1475-6765 (Online)
Subject Humanities, Social Sciences and Law
Issue Volume 31, Numbers 1-2 / February, 1997
DOI 10.1023/A:1006874631504
Pages 147-157
Online Date Wednesday, November 03, 2004

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Left-right political scales

Francis G. Castles1 and Peter Mair2
(1) The Open University, UK
(2) European University Institute, Florence, Italy

Abstract Although left-right scales are an inherent feature of much cross-national research, they have necessarily been created on a somewhat ad hoc basis, since the empirical foundation for valid cross-national scales rarely exists. This paper seeks to provide such a foundation by using judgements of party ideological position which are both explicit and non-idiosyncratic across a wide range of countries. These judgements derive from a so-called lsquoexpertrsquo survey of leading political scientists in Western Europe, the USA, and elsewhere. It is our hope that the scales which we derive in this way may prove useful in a wide variety of contexts of comparative research."