Ideological differentiation in electoral party foreign policy manifestos: PSDB, PT and MDB (1994-2018)

Abstract

The article aims to explore the political, partisan and ideological positions that PSDB, PT and MDB have attributed to their foreign policy propositions in their electoral manifestos between 1994 and 2018. The hypothesis is that, contrary to the literature, foreign policy is used as means of ideological differentiation in electoral campaigns. In order to analyze the party programs, the Manifesto Research Group method, which allows the codification of textual units in numerical values on a left-right ideological scale, was adapted. The results indicate that, despite few ideological variations, the PSDB’s electoral foreign policy is center-right inclined, the PT’s is consolidated on the left and the MDB’s behaves as one would expect for a public policy from a centrist party. Therefore, the conclusions indicate that, like other public policies, foreign policy indeed undergoes electoral differentiation as a result of the political and ideological positions tied to their home party.

Keywords:
Parties; Foreign Policy; Electoral Manifestos; Ideological Positions