Quantitative Text Analysis of the Election Promises of Political Parties Before the Riigikogu Elections
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Development Adviser, Muhu Municipal Government
The election programmes of political parties are voluminous, and many promises are made before elections. The author of the article investigated which words ap-peared most often in the election programmes, and in which contexts.
“Estonia” was by far the most often used word, it was used nearly 900 times. The election programmes spoke most of all about Estonia, the country and the state and how the respective party supports or guarantees something. Also about people, about increasing something, about children, opportunities, local governments, cooperation, businesses, and development, importance, necessity, raising, etc.
The word “Estonia” appeared more than average with the words world, self-confidence, high-quality, country for children, enter, happily, language, econo-my. The word “support” was also popular, but it was impossible to bring out a list of associations, as the word was used in a very wide range of contexts.
The most popular topics were firstly related to schools, education and teachers’ salaries, secondly to national defence capabilities and the third topic was a mixture of Estonian language and integration, also in connection with Ukrainian children.