Citizens’ evaluations of electoral pledge fulfilment in Finland: Individual pledges and overall government performance

Abstract

This study addresses citizens' evaluations of government parties' electoral pledge fulfilment at two levels, distinguishing between the fulfilment of individual pledges and the overall extent to which the government parties have fulfilled their pledges. At the level of individual pledges, those identifying with a party are more likely than non-identifiers to offer both positive and negative judgements on pledge fulfilment, but no clear differences are evident between government and opposition party identifiers. When it comes to evaluations of overall pledge fulfilment, government party identifiers tend to provide above-average performance ratings, whereas those identifying with an opposition party tend to give relatively negative ratings. Respondents who indicate that they do not identify with any party and have little interest in politics tend to choose the ‘can't say’ alternative when faced with questions about the fulfilment of individual pledges. This study draws on survey data from the 2019 Finnish National Election Study.