An exploration of whether politicians are perceived to keep their election promises. While scholars claim that parties act on most of their election promises, citizens hold the opposite view. This 'Pledge Puzzle' guides Naurin in her analysis of the often referred to but not empirically investigated, 'conventional wisdom' about election promises.

Autorentext
ELIN NAURIN is Research Fellow in the Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her research and teaching revolves around Representative Democratic Theory and Practice. She is affiliated to the Swedish National Election Study Programme and the Multidisciplinary Opinion and Democracy Research Group. She is also one of the initiators and coordinators of the research group 'Comparative Party Pledge Group'.

Inhalt
PART I: INTRODUCTION The Pledge Puzzle Election Promises in Representative Democratic Theory PART II: EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF PARTIES' FULFILMENT OF ELECTION PROMISES Definitions of Election Promises in Empirical Research Do Parties Fulfil their Election Promises? PART III: CITIZENS' VIEWS ON ELECTION PROMISES How Widespread is the Image of the Promise-breaking Politician? Just General Distrust? Citizens' Definitions of Fulfilled Election Promises PART IV: CONCLUSIONS Promising Democracy