TY - JOUR
T1 - The Fulfillment of Parties’ Election Pledges
T2 - A Comparative Study on the Impact of Power Sharing
AU - Thomson, Robert
AU - Royed, Terry
AU - Naurin, Elin
AU - Artés, Joaquín
AU - Costello, Rory
AU - Ennser-Jedenastik, Laurenz
AU - Ferguson, Mark
AU - Kostadinova, Petia
AU - Moury, Catherine
AU - Pétry, François
AU - Praprotnik, Katrin
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
©2017, Midwest Political Science Association
PY - 2017/7
Y1 - 2017/7
N2 - Why are some parties more likely than others to keep the promises they made during previous election campaigns? This study provides the first large-scale comparative analysis of pledge fulfillment with common definitions. We study the fulfillment of over 20,000 pledges made in 57 election campaigns in 12 countries, and our findings challenge the common view of parties as promise breakers. Many parties that enter government executives are highly likely to fulfill their pledges, and significantly more so than parties that do not enter government executives. We explain variation in the fulfillment of governing parties’ pledges by the extent to which parties share power in government. Parties in single-party executives, both with and without legislative majorities, have the highest fulfillment rates. Within coalition governments, the likelihood of pledge fulfillment is highest when the party receives the chief executive post and when another governing party made a similar pledge.
AB - Why are some parties more likely than others to keep the promises they made during previous election campaigns? This study provides the first large-scale comparative analysis of pledge fulfillment with common definitions. We study the fulfillment of over 20,000 pledges made in 57 election campaigns in 12 countries, and our findings challenge the common view of parties as promise breakers. Many parties that enter government executives are highly likely to fulfill their pledges, and significantly more so than parties that do not enter government executives. We explain variation in the fulfillment of governing parties’ pledges by the extent to which parties share power in government. Parties in single-party executives, both with and without legislative majorities, have the highest fulfillment rates. Within coalition governments, the likelihood of pledge fulfillment is highest when the party receives the chief executive post and when another governing party made a similar pledge.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85020232769&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/ajps.12313
DO - 10.1111/ajps.12313
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85020232769
SN - 0092-5853
VL - 61
SP - 527
EP - 542
JO - American Journal of Political Science
JF - American Journal of Political Science
IS - 3
ER -