GAEPD - Group Appeals in Electoral and Parliamentary Debates

Why do politicians talk about "the middle class", "immigrants", or "families"? Political messages often focus on social groups like these groups that people identify with or see as important in society. Such group-focused communication can influence how people vote and how they see political parties. But we still know little about why and how parties use these appeals and what impact they have on democracy. This research project explores how political parties and members of Parliament in Western Europe talk about social groups both during election campaigns and in everyday parliamentary debates. It asks: What kinds of groups do politicians mention? How do they speak about them? And how do these group-based messages affect how people think and vote? To answer these questions, the project studies speeches and texts from political parties in eight Western European countries. It focuses on two types of communication: official party platforms during election campaigns, and speeches in national parliaments. By looking at both, the project can find out whether parties change how they talk depending on the political setting. The researchers also look at how politicians describe groups. Some groups are easy to define for example, "pensioners" or "farmers". Others are described in more subtle ways, like "people who work hard" or "those left behind". The project also examines whether politicians talk about groups in a way that brings people together or sets them apart. To carry out this analysis, the team uses new methods from the field of computer- based text analysis. These tools allow researchers to examine thousands of political texts to see which groups are mentioned, what is said about them, and how these messages change over time and across countries. This project offers new insights into how politics shapes the way we think about society. It helps explain how politicians try to win support and how their words can unite or divide people. The findings will be important not only for researchers and policymakers, but also for anyone interested in the health of our democracies. The project is led by Dr. Lena Maria Huber (MZES, University of Mannheim) and Dr. Hauke Licht (University of Innsbruck), who specialize in political communication and the analysis of political texts.