Decreased Ideological Polarization and Conflict in Western Europe? (DIPAC) Government Declaration Data
type: Dataset
description: A widely argued view is that dominant mainstream parties have become less ideologically distinct over time. Still, although this is a dominant and reoccurring thesis, we argue that it is largely unsubstantiated. Therefore, the goal of this project is to systematically compare the evolution of ideas and policies supplied by political parties, from the 1970s to the 2010s, in eight Western European countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and United Kingdom. The project aimed to answer the following two questions: To what extent are the ideas and policies of political parties converging or diverging in Western European party systems? Are changes in the parties’ ideas and policies initiated mainly by the parties, or are they adjusting to voter demand arising from social changes? Additionally, the project breaks new ground by testing central hypotheses of party system changes on unique data. We study government declaration with in-depth, qualitative, analyses of the actual ideas expressed in these documents, over time. The aim has been to collect all types of data as close as possible to the middle of each decade, i.e., close to 1975, 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2015. The project works with various data files. In this part, the project focuses on government declarations in Western Europe from the 1970s through the 2010s.
alternate name: DIPAC Government Declaration Data
citation: Hagevi, M., Blombäck, S., Demker, M., Hinnfors, J., & Loxbo, K. (2022). Party realignment in Western Europe : Electoral drivers and global constraints. Edward Elgar Publishing.
conditions of access: http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/access-right/PUBLIC
conditions of access: info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
copyright notice: Documentation and data are subject to copyright and are licensed for reuse under Creative Commons
creative work status: completed
  type: DefinedTerm
  in defined term set: http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/dataset-status
  term code: COMPLETED
creator: Magnus Hagevi
creator: Sofie Blombäck
creator: Marie Demker
creator: Jonas Hinnfors
creator: Karl Loxbo
date modified: 2026-03-06
date published: 2026-03-06
funding: Minskad ideologisk polarisering och konflikt i Västeuropa?
  type: Grant
  funder: Crafoord foundation
funding: Minskad ideologisk polarisering och konflikt i Västeuropa?
  type: Grant
  funder: Swedish Research Council
funding: Minskad ideologisk polarisering och konflikt i Västeuropa?
  type: Grant
  funder: Crafoord foundation
language: English
is part of: https://doi.org/10.5878/zm15-vj14
keywords: Economic policy, public expenditure and revenue
keywords: POLITICS
keywords: Elections
keywords: Political ideology
keywords: Government, political systems and organisations
keywords: Social Sciences
  type: DefinedTerm
  term code: 5
keywords: Political Science
  type: DefinedTerm
  term code: 506
keywords: gal-tan
keywords: national unity
keywords: multiculturalism
keywords: Western Europe
keywords: private welfare provision
keywords: left-right
keywords: social authoritarianism
keywords: economic left-right
keywords: civil liberties
keywords: individual liberty
keywords: cosmopolitanism
keywords: law and order
keywords: government declaration
keywords: economic redistribution
keywords: market
keywords: welfare stat
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
publisher: Linnaeus University
size: QuantitativeValue
  unit text: cases
  value: 108
size: QuantitativeValue
  unit text: variables
  value: 190
spatial coverage: Western Europe
temporal coverage: 1975-01-01/2015-12-31
distribution: data/DIPAC Government Declaration Data.sav
  type: DataDownload
  additional type: data
  conditions of access: http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/access-right/PUBLIC
  conditions of access: info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
  content size: 112262
  encoding format: application/octet-stream
distribution: data/DIPAC Government Declaration Data.tsv
  type: DataDownload
  additional type: data
  conditions of access: http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/access-right/PUBLIC
  conditions of access: info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
  content size: 73004
  encoding format: text/tab-separated-values
distribution: documentation/DIPAC Government Declaration Data. 2.0.pdf
  type: DataDownload
  additional type: documentation
  conditions of access: http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/access-right/PUBLIC
  conditions of access: info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
  content size: 510133
  encoding format: application/pdf
version: 1

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.5878/h008-kg39

principalRegistrationNumber
type: PropertyValue
property ID: https://www.rikstermbanken.se/termposter/1848/diarienummer
value: 2016/1241-5.1

PropertyValue
property ID: ISBN
value: 9781800884724

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.4337/9781800884731

PropertyValue
property ID: ISBN
value: 9781800884731

PropertyValue
property ID: URN
value: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-115699

Magnus Hagevi
type: Person
affiliation: Linnaeus University
family name: Hagevi
given name: Magnus

Linnaeus University
type: Organization

Sofie Blombäck
type: Person
affiliation: Mid Sweden University
family name: Blombäck
given name: Sofie

Mid Sweden University
type: Organization
department: Institutionen för humaniora och samhällsvetenskap

Marie Demker
type: Person
affiliation: University of Gothenburg
family name: Demker
given name: Marie

University of Gothenburg
type: Organization
department: Department of Political Science

Jonas Hinnfors
type: Person
affiliation: University of Gothenburg
family name: Hinnfors
given name: Jonas

Karl Loxbo
type: Person
affiliation: Stockholm University
family name: Loxbo
given name: Karl

Stockholm University
type: Organization
department: Department of Political Science

Crafoord foundation
type: Organization
name: Crafoord Foundation

Swedish Research Council
type: Organization

English
type: Language
alternate name: eng

Economic policy, public expenditure and revenue
type: DefinedTerm
description: Data on economic policy, including budget and fiscal policy, public expenditure and public revenue.
term code: Economics.EconomicPolicyPublicExpenditureAndRevenue

POLITICS
type: DefinedTerm
term code: Politics

Elections
type: DefinedTerm
description: Data on elections, referendums, election campaigns, election results, candidates in elections, candidate selectors, election funding etc.
term code: Politics.Elections

Political ideology
type: DefinedTerm
description: Ideas, ideals and theories on the ways governments and societies can be organised. Major political ideologies include anarchism, democracy, liberalism, conservatism etc.
term code: Politics.PoliticalIdeology

Government, political systems and organisations
type: DefinedTerm
description: Issues relating to national, regional and local government, governing bodies (e.g. the Government, Parliament, local government bodies), public administration, other political organisations such as political parties. For example, data on government policies, political parties and their policies, political party leaders, trust in government bodies.
term code: Politics.GovernmentPoliticalSystemsAndOrganisations

POLITICS
type: DefinedTerm

CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS
type: DefinedTerm

EUROPEAN UNION
type: DefinedTerm
description: EUROPEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY BECAME FORMALLY KNOWN AS EUROPEAN UNION IN 1993.

GOVERNMENT POLICY
type: DefinedTerm

GOVERNMENT
type: DefinedTerm

IDEOLOGIES
type: DefinedTerm

PARTY SYSTEMS
type: DefinedTerm
description: THE STRUCTURE OF PARTIES WITHIN A POLITICAL SYSTEM (E.G. MULTIPARTY OR TWO-PARTY SYSTEM).

POLITICAL PARTIES
type: DefinedTerm

SOCIAL POLICY
type: DefinedTerm

POLITICAL SYSTEMS
type: DefinedTerm

NATIONALISM
type: DefinedTerm

ECONOMIC GROWTH
type: DefinedTerm