Coding Issues in Cognitive Mapping of Games

Abstract

In text analysis studies coders have to make qualitative decisions. These decisions are based on interpretations of the texts under study. In such situations it is very helpful to have coding rules. These do not only help as an aid to the coder, but are also useful for readers of the research report that will follow. The rules make visible in considerable extent how the coding task has been performed, they take care of transparency. This contribution focuses on motions that have been treated in the Dutch House of Representatives. Motions usually contain information on why they are needed, the proposing member usually also tells about it. There is a discussion with the secretary, who is supposed to put the motion into effect if it is accepted. The secretary even has to give an advice. It is assumed that under these discussion(s) a cognitive map containing some game theoretic representation can be found. Rules are discussed that are used to code the types of maps that might be found. IntroductionMany types of text are available that are not exploited yet. Looking at political debates we have among others party manifestos, speeches, debates. Party manifestos allow investigating parties with respect to their place on a left-right continuum (Laver & Garry, 2000) or on a scale denoting a relevant characteristic. This in its turn allows discovering how a party changes position over time. Slapin and Proksch (2008) demonstrate changes in economic, societal and foreign policy for several political parties in Germany. Speeches might be speeches by party officials, but also speeches by members of the parliament or members of the government. McLean and Patterson (2007) analyzed speeches on Iraq by the British Prime minister, who was at that time also party leader. Debates might be debates at a party meeting, but also a debate in democratic government's legislature like a parliament between members of different parties or between such members and the government. Bara, Weale and Bicquelet (2007), who actually compare the results found by using two different computer programs, consider the parliamentary debate. They look for dominant themes in the debates and try to find out how far speakers who take different positions follow a distinct pattern of discourse. Very often, certainly in governmental bodies, transcripts of such speeches or debates are available. Harris (1996) summarizes studies in which content analysis was used to understand negotiations. She showed that in these studies there has been a lot of attention for positive and negative behaviors and that also style and affect received attention. A disadvantage of discussions in general however is that it is unclear when a party will come with a reaction on an issue or statement; it is even possible that there will be no reaction at all.In debates in parliament sometimes typical formats are used for discussing issues. In many countries parliamentarians have the right to ask questions, to propose amendments to laws that are under construction or to propose motions. A m...

Success and Failure of Parliamentary Motions: A Social Dilemma Approach

“…They consist of an introduction, a consideration, a request or judgment and a formal closure. Consider the following example [ 23 ] (see also the examples in the Appendix): “The House, having heard de deliberations, considering that in the master plan prison system 2009–2014 has also been recorded that some institutions having limited guarding (ILG) and some having very limited guarding (IVLG) will be closed, considering that from several (international) researches it appears that the chances on repetition by prisoners after dismissal from open and half-open, less protected institutions are lower than after dismissal from more closed and more protected institutions, moreover considering that places in ILG and IVLG are cheaper than places in closed institutions with a regular guard level, requests the government to postpone the planned closing of ILG and IVLG, and to investigate how these valuable places for the prison system can be remained preserved, and returns to the order of the day (Motion 24587, nr. 361).” …”

“…Building on work by Anthony, Heckathorn and Maser [ 6 ], we use cognitive mapping techniques to identify different types of social dilemmas in texts. A detailed description of how this approach can be applied to the coding of parliamentary motions is presented in [ 23 ]. Here, we sketch the general logic behind the approach.…”

“…Two types of concept variables are distinguished: a consideration part, and a request part: “The consideration part in a motion contains one or more descriptions of states of affairs and processes necessary to build up an argument, and judgments about both in order to express an opinion. The request part contains a judgment concerning the improved issue.” [ 23 ]. Note that one motion may contain more than one consideration part and request part, and therefore may contain more than one underlying social dilemma.…”

“…closing of the prison with [very] limited guarding), and positive about the request concept node. The position of the government concerning the consideration and the request concept node cannot be discerned from the text of the motion itself, but needs to be reconstructed from the transcriptions of the debate preceding the voting stage [ 23 ]. In the example motion, the government is negative about the request part (i.e.…”

“…the consideration part and the request part) and the two utility nodes (i.e. the House and the Government) represents the core of the coding process (see [ 23 ], for a detailed description of the procedure). The underlying template for analyzing statements is the following [ 23 ]: The proposer's / government’s attitude towards the present/improved view is negative / positive.…”