Explaining the length of party manifestos in gubernatorial elections in Ecuador

Abstract

Party manifestos have been widely analysed in political science, with a particular focus on their content rather than on their format. This article focuses on one specific aspect of the format of party manifestos as it attempts to understand the variation of their length by digging into the Ecuadorian case. Using empirical data on the content of party manifestos drafted by candidates for the gubernatorial elections (2009-2023), this article concludes that time and party size matters when one wants to understand the production of party manifestos. Party manifestos drafted in more recent years tend to be longer while large political parties tend to produce longer manifestos. In a context where the electoral management bodies take into account party manifestos for the registration of candidates worldwide, the identification of the determinants their length proved to be increasingly relevant.