The relative importance of industrial relations ideas in politics: A quantitative analysis of political party manifestos across 54 countries

Abstract

Ideas are important but hard to quantify, making large-scale, quantitative analyses difficult. Political parties are important ideational contributors, and their election year manifestos provide explicit compilations of their ideas. Using Comparative Manifesto Project data, we propose three channels through which ideas enter into manifestos and examine the fraction of manifesto content devoted to pro-worker and anti-union statements to measure the importance of these ideas. Multivariate analyses across 54 countries, 75 years, and 1132 parties uniquely uncover predictors of industrial relations ideas, including party characteristics, responses to other parties, and economic and political conditions. Further, pro-worker ideas matter to voters during elections.