Paradiplomacy in German Subnational Parliaments

This script analyzes the references to international organizations in German state parliaments.

Usage Instructions

Setup

1. Clone this repository
2. Install the necessary dependencies. These are stored in the pyproject.toml file. First, create a virtual environment (e. g. python -m venv venv) and enter it (e. g. source venv/bin/activate), then install the requirements by running pip install .. If you want to install not only the necessary packages but also dev dependencies, run pip install -e ".[dev]".
3. Run the main.py script (e. g. python main.py) from the root directory to run the analysis.

Reference Collection

When no references exist in the database, you have the option to:

1. Load prepared references - Quick option using pre-processed data
2. Collect on your own - Full processing pipeline (slower, resource-intensive)

If references already exist, you have the option to update them or skip this step.

Model Training & Automated Tagging

You have three options available:

1. Train Model - Interactive manual classification of sample references
2. Run Automated Tagging - Use existing training data to classify all references automatically
3. Skip - Proceed without classification (limits available analyses)

Analysis

For the analysis, you have the option to run various analyses:

General Statistics (1-6): Generate descriptive analyses and visualizations for states, political affiliations, strategies, timelines, and streamgraphs.

Hypothesis Testing (11-13): Test research hypotheses about strategy distribution, affiliation-strategy relationships, and state variations.

All analyses generate both charts (PNG/PGF) and raw data (CSV) files.

Classification Categories

The project uses a structured taxonomy of argumentation strategies:

Deflection

• Scapegoating: Highlight mistakes and failures of other member entities
• Passing Responsibility: Present the IO as being responsible for decisions or policies

Validation

• Authority Argument: The IO is used as argument by authority
• Self-Praise: Emphasize own achievements and successes in comparison to other member entities

Legitimation

• Showcasing Cooperation: Illustrate the various forms of international cooperation and their contribution to formulating and implementing adequate policies
• Highlighting: Highlighting the value of the IO - Clarify the benefits and advantages of being member of the IO

Unfrequently Asked Questions

Can I manually manage the CPU und RAM usage?

Yes, you can. The reference collection requires an significant amount of hardware ressources. It is capped by the maximum amount of cpu cores less 2 as well as 60 % of the available memory. These values can be overrided by using the environment variables THREAD_LIMIT=foo for CPU usage or MEMORY_LIMIT=bar for memory usage. This does not affect the model training. If you decide to train the model on your own, make sure your system won't be negatively affected

Are translations cached?

Yes, translations are cached and stored in data/processed/translation_cache.json. If you want to update a specific translation, remove the respective element. If you want to start the translation process from scratch, e. g. because the organizations were updated, delete the translation cache file.

How is the database structured?

References Table Stores identified references to international organizations in parliamentary speeches.

Column Name	Type	Default	Description
organization	VARCHAR		Name of the referenced international organization
id	INTEGER		Unique identifier for the reference
protocol	VARCHAR		Protocol identifier
state	VARCHAR		German state (Bundesland)
period	INTEGER		Parliamentary period
nth	INTEGER		Session number
date	DATE		Date of the parliamentary session
sequence_number	INTEGER		Order of the paragraph within the session
speaker_extracted	VARCHAR		Extracted speaker name
speaker_id	VARCHAR		StatePol speaker identifier
speaker_name	VARCHAR		StatePol speaker name
affiliation	VARCHAR		Political party or functional affiliation
content	VARCHAR		Content of the speech segment containing the reference

Classifications Table Stores manual and automatic classifications of reference types and argumentation strategies.

Column Name	Type	Default	Description
reference_id	INTEGER		Unique identifier linking to references table
tag_manually	VARCHAR		Manual classification tag
tag_automatically	VARCHAR		Automatic classification tag
confidence	FLOAT		Confidence score for automatic classification
last_updated	TIMESTAMP	CURRENT_TIMESTAMP	Last modification timestamp

Paragraphs Table Contains parliamentary speech paragraphs from StateParl.

Column Name	Type	Default	Description
id	INTEGER		Unique identifier for the paragraph
protocol	VARCHAR		Protocol identifier
state	VARCHAR		German state (Bundesland)
period	INTEGER		Parliamentary period
nth	INTEGER		Session number
date	DATE		Date of the parliamentary session
sequence_number	INTEGER		Order of the paragraph within the session
speaker_extracted	VARCHAR		Extracted speaker name
speaker_id	VARCHAR		StatePol speaker identifier
speaker_name	VARCHAR		StatePol speaker name
affiliation	VARCHAR		Political party or functional affiliation
content	VARCHAR		Content of the paragraph