Retrospective Pledge Voting and Political Accountability:The Costs of Broken Promises

by: Theres Matthieß (Author)

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Edition: 2024th

Publication Date: 2024/8/18

Language: English

Print Length: 265 pages

ISBN-10: 3031542908

ISBN-13: 9783031542909

Book Description

This book examines retrospective pledge voting; the phenomenon of whether and under which conditions citizens are likely to withdraw their support for political parties that have failed to tu their pre-election pledges into tangible policies once they have joined govement. It puts forward a new theoretical framework on retrospective pledge voting. Whilst one would expect voters to punish govement parties that have broken their promises by refusing to vote for them at the next election, little research has been done to show whether, and under what contexts, this is actually the case. Adopting a multi-methods approach, the book demonstrates that citizens do punish govement parties that have shown a poor performance in fulfilling their election pledges, and that more sceptical citizens with negative pre-existing opinions punish pledge breakage more severely. Bringing together research on election pledges, govement performance and voting, the book will appeal to all those interested in democratic representation, politics, public policy, and voter-party linkages.

About the Author

This book examines retrospective pledge voting; the phenomenon of whether and under which conditions citizens are likely to withdraw their support for political parties that have failed to tu their pre-election pledges into tangible policies once they have joined govement. It puts forward a new theoretical framework on retrospective pledge voting. Whilst one would expect voters to punish govement parties that have broken their promises by refusing to vote for them at the next election, little research has been done to show whether, and under what contexts, this is actually the case. Adopting a multi-methods approach, the book demonstrates that citizens do punish govement parties that have shown a poor performance in fulfilling their election pledges, and that more sceptical citizens with negative pre-existing opinions punish pledge breakage more severely. Bringing together research on election pledges, govement performance and voting, the book will appeal to all those interested in democratic representation, politics, public policy, and voter-party linkages.