The Framing Territorial Demands (FraTerr) dataset: A novel approach to conceptualizing and measuring regionalist actors’ territorial strategies

Abstract

This article introduces a new dataset on regionalist actors' territorial demands and frames in Europe. The FraTerr dataset advances on existing datasets by proposing a more fine-grained understanding of regionalist actors' territorial demands, and is the first to provide comparative data on how these are framed. Methodologically, it develops an original coding scheme for the qualitative content analysis of political documents. Empirically, this approach is applied to a comparative study of regionalist parties and civil society actors in twelve European regions. A preliminary analysis of the data provides new evidence of the complexity of regionalist actors' territorial demands and the multi-dimensional nature of their framing strategies. The dataset has implications for the study of regionalist actors and issues, and for broader scholarly efforts at estimating political actors' territorial issue positions and framing strategies.

Identity, money, or governance? Explaining secessionist parties’ rhetorical strategies

“…Elias et al . map the frames advanced by regionalist parties and civic organisations in Europe (Elias et al,. 2021), while Griffiths and Martinez have built up a dataset on secessionist grievances using data from many countries (Griffiths and Martinez, 2020).…”

“…Nevertheless, as we have seen, they either focus on one or a few cases, or only cover one type of frame. It is only very recently that Elias et al have put forward an exhaustive dataset about framing strategies by regionalist parties (Elias et al, 2021). This dataset, however, is yet to be exploited.…”

Justifying Secession in Catalonia: Resolving Grievances or a Means to a Better Future?

“…We examine how these three parties have justified their calls for Catalan independence by using the new FraTerr dataset (Elias et al, 2021). The dataset provides information on the kinds of territorial demands made by regionalist actors in 12 European regions during the period 1990-2018, and the frames used to justify these.…”

“…The article advances on recent work on secessionist strategies in two ways. Firstly, it exploits the new Framing Territorial Demands (FraTerr) data set (Elias et al, 2021) on how regionalist actors in Europe have framed their territorial demands; this allows for a more systematic comparative analysis of secessionists' justification strategies than is provided by existing studies of individual political parties or movements (Abts et al, 2019;Dalle Mulle, 2017;Elias, 2019) and captures the broader range of arguments used and changing strategies over time which other datasets cannot (Griffiths, 2020;Griffiths & Martinez, 2020). Secondly, the article draws on interviews with party representatives to provide the first exploration of the factors shaping secessionist parties' strategies for justifying secession; the analysis thus provides new insights into why, as well as how, secessionists make the case for creating a new sovereign state.…”

Secessionism as the Mainstream: Regionalist Parties’ Strategies in the Catalan and Scottish 2021 Regional Elections

“…Second, we focus on the content analysis of manifestos and media electoral campaigns; for example, the content analysis of manifestos was conducted through several datasets and approaches, including FraTerr (Elias et al 2021), Ethnonationalism in Political Competition (EPAC; Zuber and Szöcsik 2018), and the Regional Manifesto Project (Alonso, Gomez, and Cabeza 2013). In this research, we use the Regional Manifesto Project to understand the position and saliency of regionalist parties, which are part of the larger strategic toolbox.…”