---
module: analysis
problem_type: best_practice
date: 2026-05-25
tags:
  - svd
  - overton-window
  - voting-patterns
  - policy-content
  - spatial-analysis
category: best-practices
---

# SVD Positions Reflect Voting Patterns, Not Policy Content

## Context

When analyzing political shifts with SVD/PCA party positions, it is tempting to interpret spatial movement as ideological change — "centrists moved left" sounds like centrist parties became more progressive. This interpretation is incorrect and dangerously misleading.

## Guidance

**SVD axes capture agreement structure, not policy positions.** A party's coordinate on an SVD axis reflects whom it votes with and against, not what policies it advocates. This was already documented in `svd-labels-voting-patterns-not-semantics.md` for axis labeling, but the same principle applies to spatial drift analysis.

**What SVD movement actually means:**
- Centrists moving left on an axis means centrist voting patterns became *more distinct* from right-wing voting patterns
- It does NOT mean centrist parties adopted more left-wing policy positions
- It does NOT mean the motions being voted on became more left-wing or right-wing in content

**Why this matters for Overton window analysis:**
- "Acceptance without conversion" (centrists vote more with right-wing while spatially diverging) is a claim about *voting behavior*, not stated ideology
- A right-wing motion can have high centrist support while still being in a "right-wing" cluster if centrist parties split on it
- Topics with cross-partisan agreement (defense, nuclear energy) show minimal spatial separation regardless of how radical the motion text is

## When to Apply

- Before interpreting any SVD/PCA spatial drift as "ideological shift"
- When presenting SVD movement findings to non-technical audiences
- When cross-referencing voting-pattern results with content-based analysis (LLM extremity scores, mechanism classification)

## Prevention

Always pair SVD drift findings with a caveat: "SVD positions reflect voting patterns, not policy content. We measure behavioral shifts in voting coalitions, not ideological repositioning of party platforms."
