Policy changes of parties in European Parliament party groups ANDREA VOLKENS

During the 25 years of their existence, the focus of the Manifesto Research Group (MRG) and its successor, the Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP) was on parties. Initiated by Ian Budge in 1979 with the aim of estimating policy positions of parties on the basis of programmes issued for national elections, the MRG/CMP analysed programmatic convergences and divergences of parties across countries for party families, often focusing on the left-right dimension (Budge, 2002).