lpanda: Local Political Actor Network Diachronic Analysis Tools

Provides functions to prepare, visualize, and analyse diachronic network data on local political actors, with a particular focus on the development of local party systems and identification of actor groups. Formalizes and automates a continuity diagram method that has been previously applied in research on Czech local politics, e.g. Bubenicek and Kubalek (2010, ISSN:1803-8220), Kubalek and Bubenicek (2012, ISSN:1803-8220), and Cmejrek, Bubenicek, and Copik (2010, ISBN:978-80-247-3061-5). The package also includes several example datasets derived from Czech municipal elections, compiled from official election results, field research, and previously published case studies on Czech local politics.

Main functions

The main user-facing functions of lpanda are:

prepare_network_data() - prepares network objects from municipal election results.
plot_continuity() - creates continuity diagrams of local political actors' candidacies over time.

Together, these functions facilitate diachronic analysis of local political actor networks and the evolution of local party systems, particularly in small municipalities.

Basic workflow

The typical workflow in lpanda centres on continuity diagrams that trace candidacies of local political actors across multiple elections.

To create a continuity diagram of candidacies of local political actors, it is necessary to prepare election data containing at least unique names of candidates, unique names of their candidate lists and the years of the elections. In case of same names, they need to be distinguished, e.g., by adding numbers after the names of candidates (for example "Doe Jane (2)" or "Smith John, Jr.") or candidate lists (for example "Independents 3").

For a basic continuity diagram, you can directly pass the data into the plot_continuity() function. However, for deeper analysis, it is recommended to first process the basic election data using prepare_network_data(), which creates a list of network objects, and only then experiment with the various parameters offered by plot_continuity().

Municipality datasets

The lpanda package contains several datasets of municipal election results that have been the objects of case studies in various publications focused on Czech local politics. The datasets are compiled from publicly available data, and in some cases supplemented by findings from field research. They can be used to reproduce continuity diagrams published in studies referenced in the documentation of the datasets, for their deeper analysis, or simply to experiment with the workflow.

List of municipality datasets:

References

The continuity diagram approach implemented in lpanda builds on earlier attempts to visualise candidate movements ("defections") between political parties across elections. Over time, these visualisations evolved into a more general method for analysing the continuity of local political actors' candidacies. The method has been progressively formalised and systematised so that it can be reused across different case studies.

For an overview of the development of this approach and its applications in Czech local politics research, see the selected studies below, as well as the publications listed in the documentation of the individual datasets.

Bubenicek, V. (2010). Lokalni modely demokracie v malych obcich CR (Local Models of Democracy in Small Municipalities). Dissertation thesis. Czech University of Life Sciences Prague. [Full text]

Bubenicek, V., & Kubalek, M. (2010). Konfliktni linie v malych obcich (Cleavages in Small Municipalities). Acta Politologica, 2(3), 30-45. [Full text]

Cmejrek, J., Bubenicek, V., & Copik, J. (2010). Demokracie v lokalnim politickem prostoru (Democracy in Local Political Area). Prague: Grada. [Publisher link]

Kubalek, M., & Bubenicek, V. (2012). Charakter lokalni politiky v suburbannim politickem prostoru (The Nature of Local Politics in Suburban Political Space). Acta Politologica, 4(3), 284-305. [Full text]

Kotaskova, S. K. (2016). Cleavages and political pluralism in the small municipality in Czech Republic. Global Journal of Business, Economics and Management: Current Issues, 5(2), 63-69.

Hornek, J. (2022). Zhroucene obce v Ceske republice (Failed Municipalities in the Czech Republic). Dissertation thesis. Charles University. [Full text]

Krpalkova, S. (2024). Permanentni opakovani komunalnich voleb: zablokovane obce? (Permanent Repetition of Municipal Election: Blocked Municipalities?). Dissertation thesis. Charles University. [Full text]

Author

Maintainer: Vaclav Bubenicek bubenicek@pef.czu.cz (ORCID) (Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZU)) [copyright holder]