The Territorial Dimension in Two Sub-Dimensions: Identity and Competence

The left-right spectrum is the most prominent and recognized framework for situating political actors, ourselves and others within ideological coordinates. Moreover, in certain multilevel States, a second dimension has also been emphasized to explain centre-periphery territorial conflicts. For a greater explanatory depth in the left-right spectrum, progress has been made in its analytical division into two sub-dimensions, the economic and the cultural, although this has not occurred in the territorial dimension. In this paper we propose that the latter be articulated in two sub-dimensions: one identity-based, on identification with national and regional identities; and the other competitive, on preferences for a more or less (de)centralized territorial model. So far, in the Regional Manifesto Project these sub-dimensions have been explained in a related way through a quantitative model of word counts of electoral programmes. However, through an inductive analysis of this textual data in the case of several Spanish regional parties, we propose a ten-position scaled coding in each of these sub-dimensions. By validating them, we aim to provide in multilevel States a deeper understanding of the territorial positions of political parties, offering a robust predictor of various political phenomena, such as electoral behavior, legislative roll-call votes and public policy outcomes.