motief/.mindmodel/domain/domain-glossary.md

title	category
Domain Glossary	domain

Domain Glossary - Dutch Political Terms

CRITICAL INVARIANTS

Rule 1: Centroid of right-wing parties on RIGHT side of ALL axes

• PVV, FVD, JA21, SGP centroid must appear on the RIGHT
• Individual right-wing parties may vary slightly from the centroid
• This is non-negotiable for any compass/axis visualization

Rule 2: SVD labels are empirically derived from voting data

• Labels represent WHAT THE DATA SHOWS, not party self-identification or public opinion
• Labels are derived from outliers and 20 representative motions (10 positive, 10 negative)
• See SVD Label Derivation section below

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SVD Label Derivation

The Process

SVD (Singular Value Decomposition) finds axes that maximize variance in the MP × Motion voting matrix. To label each axis:

1. Identify outliers: Find the two MPs with most extreme positions on that axis
2. Select representative motions: Pick 20 motions where these outliers disagreed most sharply (10 they voted opposite on, 10 where both voted same direction but with other extremes)
3. Interpret theme: Read the motion titles to derive what the axis represents
4. Assign label: Label describes the empirical theme, could be:
   • Left-Right
   • Coalition-Opposition
   • Progressive-Conservative
   • EU-National sovereignty
   • Populist-Establishment
   • Or whatever the voting patterns show

Example

Step	Description
Outlier A	Wilders (PVV) - extreme positive on Dim 1
Outlier B	Marijnissen (SP) - extreme negative on Dim 1
20 Motions	Immigration, integration, law & order themes dominate
Label	"Links-Rechts" (Left-Right)

Labeling Rules

• Never use party names in labels (e.g., not "PVV-SP axis")
• Never use semantic/ideological labels (e.g., not "progressive-conservative" unless that's what the motions show)
• Use motion-derived themes (e.g., "Immigration", "EU", "Economy")
• Fallback: If theme is unclear, use "Axis 1", "Axis 2"

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Core Entities

Motion / Motie

• Parliamentary motion submitted by MPs
• Fields: id, title, date, category
• MPs vote: For (+1), Against (-1), Abstain (0), Absent

MP / Kamerlid

• Member of Parliament (Tweede Kamerlid)
• Identified by full name (e.g., "Van Dijk, I.")
• Has voting record, party affiliation, SVD position vector

Party / Fractie

• Political party (e.g., "GroenLinks-PvdA", "PVV", "VVD")
• Party centroids: average SVD position of all MPs in party

Vote / Stemming

• Individual MP's vote on a motion: +1, 0, -1
• Aggregated to compute SVD vectors

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Time & Analysis Concepts

Window / Tijdsvenster

• Time period for analysis (annual or quarterly)
• Values: "2023", "2023-Q1", "2024", etc.
• SVD vectors computed per window

Trajectory

• MP's position change across multiple windows
• Computed from svd_vectors + window ordering

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Mathematical / Algorithmic Terms

SVD Vector

• 2D vector from Singular Value Decomposition of MP × Motion vote matrix
• Represents MP's position in political space

SVD Label

• Empirically derived axis label based on outlier MPs and representative motions
• Describes the theme of disagreement on that axis
• NOT based on party ideology or semantic labels

Political Compass

• 2D visualization with SVD axes mapped to compass quadrants
• X-axis: First SVD dimension (labeled from voting data)
• Y-axis: Second SVD dimension (labeled from voting data)

Procrustes Alignment

• Algorithm to align SVD vectors across time windows
• Ensures comparable positions across years/quarters

UMAP

• Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection
• Dimensionality reduction for visualization
• Optional dependency with graceful SVD fallback

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Database Table Reference

Table	Key Fields
motions	id, title, date, category
mp_votes	mp_id, motion_id, vote
svd_vectors	entity_id, window, vector_2d (list[2])
mp_party_history	mp_id, party, start_date, end_date
windows	window_id, start_date, end_date, period_type
mp_trajectories	mp_id, window, trajectory_vector

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Dutch Political Parties

Canonical Right-Wing (centroid on RIGHT of axes)

• PVV (Partij voor de Vrijheid)
• FVD (Forum voor Democratie)
• JA21
• SGP (Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij)

Other Major Parties

• VVD (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie)
• GL-PvdA (GroenLinks-PvdA)
• NSC (Nieuw Sociaal Contract)
• BBB (BoerBurgerBeweging)
• SP (Socialistische Partij)
• D66 (Democraten 66)