My research focused on how political parties as collective bodies of representation go about shaping their relationship with society. I use computational text analysis methods to examine patterns of group-based appeals in parties’ election materials over time and across countries.
Within this research agenda and as part of the HorizonEurope Marie Curie GAPREP project, I am currently developing in collaboration with Lena Maria Huber (MZES, University of Mannheim) and Will Horne (Clemson University) new computational tools for the extraction of group appeals from party manifestos as well as a new, large-scale database on parties’ group appeals. In addition, the project sets a new conceptual framework linking group appeals to representative claims to expand our understanding of the party-voter representative relationship.
Starting in 2025, I am the co-PI of “The Construction of Groups in Politics” (CONSTRUCT) project which will run for four years until 2029 funded by a VW grant from the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture (MWK).
Together with Marius Sältzer of Oldenburg University and Tristan Klingelhöfer from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, we will examine the question of whether, through their communication with voters, political parties and politicians actually construct the identities of the social groups they represent, rather than simply appealing to existing identities or groups. We will use machine learning methods to find evidence in campaign ads, party programmes, speeches and social media posts political parties in Israel and Germany that supports our theoretical argument. We will also conduct experiments with volunteers from both countries to determine whether their perception of belonging to a group can be changed through political communication. Our hope is that the results will provide a new perspective on the relationship between parties and social groups, and serve as a basis for creating new tools for political campaigning and improved political representation.
Previously, in my work with WP6 of the OPTED Project, I examined different aspects of available approaches to multilingual computational text analysis, engaging with recommendations for validating multilingual text analysis.
My PhD dissertation evaluates parties’ group appeals to voters as representational claims, understood to be the first step in the process of political representation. Using a novel dataset built from party manifestos, printed campaign advertisements, and parties’ names of parties in Israel and the Netherlands between 1977-2015, the dissertation also examines how these appeals impact the processes of coalition formation and choice of candidate selection method. The first article based on the monograph dissertation chapters was published in 2023 in Party Politics.
During my MA in Political Science at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, my studies focused on on intra-party candidate selection, examining the determinants and implications of various selection methods. In this article, I argue that intra-party struggles for power and varying perceptions of where the intra-party locus of power ought to rest (party leadership, party members or party institutions) influence parties’ decision on how to conduct their incumbent renomination processes. In addition, I worked as the primary research assistant to Prof. Gideon Rahat on the first round of The Political Party Database Project.
Pre-Prints
Dolinsky, A.O., Huber, L.M., and Horne, W. 2025. Who do Parties Speak To? Introducing the PSoGA: A New Comprehensive Database of Parties’ Social Group Appeals. https://osf.io/preprints/osf/64jwa_v1
Horne, W., Dolinsky, A.O., and Huber, L.M. 2024. Using LLMs to detect group appeals in election manifestos of parties. https://osf.io/preprints/osf/fp2h3_v2
Dolinsky, A.O., Schoonvelde, M., Pipal, C., Baden, C., Lind, F., Shababo G., van der Velden, M.A.C.G., and Zalik, A. 2024. Challenges for multilingual computational text analysis researchers: evidence from a survey of social scientists. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/9mybf
Dolinsky, A.O., and Huber, L.M. 2023. Political Parties and Representational Claims—A political representation approach to group appeals. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/a9sf6
Huber, L.M., and Dolinsky, A.O. 2023. How parties shape their relationship with social groups: A roadmap to the study of group-based appeals. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/szaqw
Public Engagement
In an exchange between researchers, practitioners and policy makers via the MSCA lunchtime conversation, I presented the GAPREP project as part of an exploration of the interplay between citizens’ diverse identities and the values attached to them on one hand, and political attitudes and behaviours regarding often polarising issues (e.g. health, climate, migration) on the other. During the event we addressed perspectives on public policies and responsible institutions at national or EU level. Contributing to the event, I presented relevant findings from my project, commented on policy implications of my work and reflected on the responsibility and capacity of science to (in)form citizens’ views/opinions.
In this Political Studies Association blog post: The State of Israeli Politics: Elections and Group Appeals, I discuss the current state of Israeli politics as the country heads for its fourth general election in 24 months and the concept of group appeals, reflecting on its usefullness for understanding politics.
In this LSE Government blog post: What do parties say and who do they say it to? Election campaigns as more than just policy appeals, I lay out the argument for considering not just parties’ policy positions but also who they direct messages towards when they campaign.
Alona O. Dolinsky 