TABLE 6.17a: Mid 1950s: BV5.15 Soviet
Expert Left-Right Rating
TABLE 6.17b: Early 1960s: BV5.15
Soviet Expert Left-Right Rating
the two sets of distributions are constrained due to the
use of four categories in one set and the construction of
three for the other. But both sources agree on the
preponderance of "conservative" parties across the world.
Although scores for the Soviet ratings were derived from a
somewhat subjective process of content analysis of party
descriptions, the process did not seem to be sufficiently
subjective to warrant the assignment of adequacy-confidence
assessments to the variable codes. The reliability of the
process appeared to be satisfactory, owing to the 88 percent
rate calculated from 23 exact matches in 26 judgments by two
independent coders.
Experts' Ratings and the Issue Orientation
Variables
The correlations of the experts' ratings with all
thirteen issue orientation variables are presented in Table
6.18. The number of parties underlying each of these
correlations vary from a low of 58 to a high of 109. The
average number supporting the correlations with the U.S.
experts' ratings is 71 for the first half and 79 for the
second, while the comparable figures for the Soviet ratings
are 73 and 87, respectively. Thus substantial numbers of
political parties are involved in these correlations, and
the results cannot be attributed to idiosyncratic patterns
of a few cases.
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TABLE 6.18: Correlation of the Experts'
Ratings with the Issue Orientation
Variables
|
|
Issue Orientation Variable
|
BV514: U.S. Experts
|
BV515: Soviet
Experts
|
|
1st Half
|
2nd Half
|
1st Half
|
2nd Half
|
|
5.01
|
Ownership of Means of Production1
|
0.82
|
0.81
|
0.74
|
0.75
|
|
5.02
|
Economic Planning1
|
0.67
|
0.61
|
0.60
|
0.59
|
|
5.03
|
Redistribution of Wealth1
|
0.74
|
0.70
|
0.69
|
0.66
|
|
5.04
|
Social Welfare1
|
0.54
|
0.53
|
0.51
|
0.50
|
|
5.05
|
Secularization of Society1
|
0.40
|
0.39
|
0.46
|
0.40
|
|
5.06
|
Support of the Military2
|
-.28
|
-.29
|
-.43
|
-0.37
|
|
5.07
|
Alignment with East/West Blocs1
|
0.75
|
0.72
|
0.70
|
0.67
|
|
5.08
|
Anticolonialism1
|
0.44
|
0.38
|
0.45
|
0.40
|
|
5.09
|
Supranational Integration
|
0.01
|
-.12
|
0.08
|
0.02
|
|
5.10
|
National Integration
|
0.14
|
0.19
|
0.26
|
0.37
|
|
5.11
|
Electoral Participation2
|
-.12
|
-.15
|
-.15
|
-.24
|
|
5.12
|
Protection of Civil Rights2
|
0.23
|
0.26
|
0.21
|
0.25
|
|
5.13
|
Interference with Civil
Liberties2
|
0.16
|
0.20
|
0.20
|
0.24
|
1 Variables that emerged on a Marxism
factor after factor analysis. See Table
14.4.
2Variables that appeared on a
liberalism factor after factor analysis.
|
There are several striking features in the data in Table
6.18. First, the correlations of our issue orientation
variables with the U.S. ratings closely parallel our
correlations with the Soviet ratings. This suggests that the
U.S. and Soviet codes are themselves closely correlated. In
fact, they correlate .87 over 84 parties existing during the
first half of our period and .86 over 92 parties in the
second. Finding such high correlations between party ratings
on the left-right continuum by two such diverse sets of
experts, we are encouraged in our own attempt to evaluate
parties' positions on our specific issues from a broader
ideological perspective. Whatever reasons underlie the
experts' rating of parties on a left-right continuum, the
experts largely agree in their judgments at a level of
reliability greater than .80.
|