Hello to all coders,

there is ambiguity about whether and when to code pledges as fulfilled after the government term has ended. We discussed in our last team meeting that we would give governments some leeway. But it appears that neither Alex nor I nor everybody on the team is on the same page what this entails.

I keep hearing that pledge fulfillment after a government term pops up again and again in the data. As far as I am concerned, this should only be coded as fulfilled when the pledge is fulfilled after a new legislature has formed but before the next government takes over, as government formation can take some time. This is what we currently see in Germany: there has been a new parliament for quite some time now, but the old government is still working until the CDU+SPD agree on their terms and elect Merz as the new Bundeskanzler (which will allow him to form a new government and cabinet).

Is this what is happening in the data? It would be very helpful if everyone could provide me with two concrete examples from your coding data so we can get a feeling for why this keeps popping up in the data. This will allow us to set a concrete rule for your coding decisions. Please get to this as soon as possible - on your first working day after the small easter holiday at the latest. We need this information to guide your further coding, and this is a priority atm.

Thank you very much!

Best wishes, Leo

---------------- Dr. Leo Ahrens leo.ahrens@uni-konstanz.de Website https://leoahrens.eu/