Party policy position of Die Linke: A continuation of the PDS?

Abstract

In 2007, the German party Die Linke emerged as the result of the PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism; the successor of the Communist Party) merging with the WASG (Wahlalternative Arbeit und Soziale Gerechtigkeit; a break away left wing of the Social Democrats). This article compares the policy position of Die Linke with the positions of the two merging partners. Using a recently developed computerized method, Wordscores, we investigate the differences between the merging partners and compare their policy positions with the position of Die Linke. We provide a systematic analysis of the parties’ positions with respect to the economic policy issue based on the manifestos of the three parties. The word scores estimates reveal significant differences between the two merging partners and show that Die Linke is positioned closer to the PDS with respect to the economic issue.