How to Measure Political Positions in MENA Countries: A Theoretical and Methodological Proposal

In the MENA región, the so-called Islamist parties are getting more and more attention. However, while there is wide research on authoritarian survival, the systematic study of political parties and their programs is under-explored. It is, therefore, necessary to develop a tool for the empirical analysis of programmatic questions and their evolution. In this paper, we will propose an adaptation of the Party Manifesto Project in order to empirically measure the religious orientation of a party and its (possible) evolution over time.