Poster #69 - Introducing Comparative Agendas Project Pakistan

• In Event: Saturday Poster Luncheon

Abstract

Pakistan is a federal parliamentary republic that gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Since its inception, it has experienced a mix of parliamentary democracy, military dictatorship, and presidential systems, with varying degrees of stability and democratic practices. It is interesting to explore how these constitutional, institutional, and ideological arrangements and shifts affect the dynamics of the government’s attention to various issues and problems. Furthermore, it is even more intriguing to examine how societal demands interact with the dynamics of these systems. How are external signals – such as those coming through media and public opinion – treated? Are they attended to or ignored? These and related questions require a careful measurement of the government’s activities and the public’s focus on specific issues.

In this paper, I introduce the Comparative Agenda Project Pakistan (CAP-PK), which provides four different datasets to help answer these and other related questions.

CAP-PK follows the standard coding system of the Comparative Agendas Project, while employing a fine-tuned large language model (LLM) for automatic coding. Each unit of analysis (e.g., a bill or media story) is assigned one of the twenty-one major topics. In total, I present four major datasets covering a period of fifteen years, from 2009 to 2024: 1. Acts of Parliament, 2. Bills introduced and/or passed in both houses of Parliament, 3. Annual budgets and budget speeches, and 4. Media agenda (front-page stories of the major English-language newspaper, The Dawn). Importantly, I also discuss the major trends in these datasets.

These datasets will facilitate an empirical research agenda in Pakistan on topics such as political representation, policy congruence, and the role of media. Currently, research on these topics in Pakistan lacks rigor due to the absence of such data.

Author

• Hanif Ullah Sajid
  Presenting Author