ABSTRACT
Building on social psychology, cultural sociology and historical institutionalism, it is possible to develop fairly specific expectations of how identities shape parties’ policy-making. These experiences can be formulated as empirical questions, which can be analysed with the help of the quantitative and qualitative data collected on the political parties in question. Which ideas of the role and capacity of the state and the functioning of the labour market dominate a party’s discourse? Who or what constitutes ‘the alternative’ to a given policy and ideational identity?
