Party Positions in the EP -- p15
were estimated in completely separate expert surveys—often administered in different
languages. The clear correspondence of results not only suggests that expert surveys are an
effective method for measuring the policy positions of EP party groups, but also augurs well
for the issue of the cross-national meaning and stability of expert placements on the general
left-right dimension as used in our survey and in Benoit and Laver (2005, forthcoming).
Beyond the clear correspondence of positions, we observe a few interesting individual
results. Several party groups clearly contain national member parties whose positions are out
of line with the central tendency of the other party group members. The EPP in particular
appears to have adopted a more centrist position than the median position of its constituent
national parties. While relatively centrist in the EP, the EPP is made up of mainly right-of-
centre national parties. The UEN also contains several parties whose positions are clearly
more centrist: the Polish Peasant Party (PSL) at 9.0 and the Lithuanian Union of Peasant and
New Democracy parties (VNDPS) at 7.45. We see similar minor outliers for the UEN, with
the Ireland’s Fianna Fail (FF) and the Estonia’s Eestimaa Rahvaliit (RL) more centrist than
the UEN, with means at 13.3 and 10.4 respectively. Among the Verts, we also see two parties
whose positions are clearly more to the right than most of the other Verts members: the
Spanish Partido Nacionalista Vasco (PNV) at 14.5 and the Latvian Green and Farmers’ Union
(ZZS) at 11.0.3 Another interesting result relates to the variance of member party positions.
The distribution of ELDR member parties’ positions, for instance, has a wide variance
relative to more policy concentrated groups such as PES, GUE, or UEN. While the ELDR is a
relatively centrist party grouping, it clearly includes both left-of-centre and right-of-centre
national parties.
Overall these findings suggest interesting patterns between EP policy group positioning
and the policy positions of national-level member parties. In particular, it should suggest a
note of caution for methods that automatically assume that EP party group positions can be
inferred as the central tendency of constituent national party measures. Our preliminary look
using left-right positions suggest that this will not always be the case, and further exploration
among more specific policy dimensions (not shown here) suggest even greater divergence in
3 Interestingly, in the following Parliament (the 6th), the Partido Nacionalista Vasco joined the Liberal group.