Quantified Coherence of Moral Beliefs as Predictive Factor for Moral Agency

Christen, Markus; Ott, Thomas

doi:10.1007/978-94-007-6343-2_5

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…by focusing on actual social interactions party members have and quantify this aspect. The problem under investigation and the theory behind the problem leads the choice of the similarity relation and makes the measure adaptable to different types of problems (see [12]).…”

Section: 2012 14:12 Wspc/instruction File Christenottschwarz˙cohementioning

confidence: 99%

A New Measure for Party Coherence: Applying a Physics-Based Concept to the Swiss Party System

Christen

Ott

Schwarz

2013

Advs. Complex Syst.

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The paper revives a theoretical definition of party coherence as being composed of two basic elements, cohesion and factionalism, to propose and apply a novel empirical measure based on spin physics. The simultaneous analysis of both components using a single measurement concept is applied to data representing the political beliefs of candidates in the Swiss general elections of 2003 and 2007, proposing a connection between the coherence of the beliefs party members hold and the assessment of parties being at risk of splitting. We also compare our measure with established polarization measures and demonstrate its advantage with respect to multi-dimensional data that lack clear structure. Furthermore, we outline how our analysis supports the distinction between bottom-up and top-down mechanisms of party splitting. In this way, we are able to turn the intuition of coherence into a defined quantitative concept that, additionally, offers a methodological basis for comparative research of party coherence. Our work serves as an example of how a complex systems approach allows to get a new perspective on a long-standing issue in political science.

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Section: 2012 14:12 Wspc/instruction File Christenottschwarz˙cohementioning

confidence: 99%