Using VAAs to explore the dimensionality of the policy space: experiments from Brazil, Peru, Scotland and Cyprus

Abstract

Research into Voting Advice Applications (VAA) has hitherto been concerned with technical issues over the use of VAAs as a tool to help people vote.This paper shows that data generated by VAAs can also be used for research into how policy preferences of voters can be conceptualised in terms of a multi-dimensional policy space.Specifically, analysis of data extracted from VAAs deployed in Brazil, Peru, Scotland and Cyprus reaffirm the importance of existing concepts of Left and Right, as well as a second dimension of social conservatism versus social liberalism (sometimes known as GAL-TAN), as defining features of the policy space.This paper also shows how data from VAAs can be used to map the ideological profiles of party supporters.