Election Manifestos Research Articles

Die hessische Landtagswahl vom 8. Oktober 2023: Die Schwäche der Ampelparteien und das überraschende Ende von Schwarz-Grün

The Hesse state election on October 8, 2023, took place in a polarized political context that was characterized by a decreasing support for the parties of the federal government and the several implications of Russia’s attack on Ukraine for German and European politics . At the same time, the state government consisting of the CDU and Alliance 90/The Greens worked relatively conflict-free and remained stable even after the change in the office of Prime Minister from Volker Bouffier to Boris Rhein . The Social Democrats, as the largest opposition party, nominated the Federal Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, as their top candidate and thus a politician well-known in Hessian state politics and nationwide . The election results reflected the weak support of the parties forming the federal government (SPD, Alliance 90/The Greens and FDP) in the electorate . The CDU benefited from the high level of dissatisfaction with the federal government and from the Prime Minister’s incumbency advantage . The CDU vote share was almost twice as high as the vote share of the AfD, which became the second strongest party in Hesse with 18 .2 percent of the vote and achieved its best result to date in a West German state election . The Left failed to win parliamentary representation . The CDU was able to choose its coalition partner between Alliance 90/The Greens and the SPD . The Christian Democrats selected – because of a smaller programmatic distance, as the analysis of the parties’ election manifestos indicates – the Social Democrats as their new junior partner . The analysis of the office and policy payoffs for CDU and SPD shows that the Christian Democrats were better able to enforce their office and policy preferences than the SPD .

Electioneering and the RCGP Election Manifesto.

Electioneering and the RCGP Election Manifesto.

Liberal Democrats pledge ‘fairer long-term funding model’ for community pharmacies in general election manifesto

Liberal Democrats pledge ‘fairer long-term funding model’ for community pharmacies in general election manifesto

Keir Starmer's Ten Pledges and the Labour Party's 2024 General Election Manifesto

Keir Starmer's Ten Pledges and the Labour Party's 2024 General Election Manifesto

The 2024 general election manifestos are lacking on ambitions for pharmacy

The 2024 general election manifestos are lacking on ambitions for pharmacy

RPS calls for review of the medicines supply chain in its general election manifesto

RPS calls for review of the medicines supply chain in its general election manifesto

Understanding and explaining populist radical right parties’ commitment to animal welfare in Western Europe

ABSTRACT Populist radical right parties (PRRP) are considered to be supportive of domestic environmental protection. In this context, scholars stress the importance of animal welfare, arguing that nativist and authoritarian ideologies provide discursive links to the issue in multicultural Western societies. Others argue that the fascist origins of some European PRRP still manifest themselves in supportive positions on animal welfare. This study attempts to map PRRPs’ engagement and positions on animal welfare and to explain the differences within the party group. Using partly computer-assisted content analysis of PRRP election manifestos and Twitter campaigns in eight Western European countries, we find that PRRP are more committed to animal welfare than several other party families but vary considerably in their engagement and position on the issue. It is argued that the involvement depends on whether animal welfare is a prominent issue in the party system and whether PRRP have fascist roots.

Big ideas, little detail: how populist parties talk about referendums in Europe

ABSTRACT The idea of increasing the power of the ‘pure people’ at the expense of a ‘corrupt elite’ lies at the core of populism. One way for populist parties to do this is to push for a greater use of referendums. Previous research shows that populist parties mention in general in their communications the referendums as suitable avenues for the direct involvement of the people in the decision-making process. However, we miss details about how they refer to referendums. This article addresses this gap in the literature and explores how populist parties talk about referendums in their election manifestos. It seeks to identify what type of referendum populist parties tend to support, and to analyze whether their support for referendums is generic or policy-specific. Our qualitative content analysis draws on the election manifestos used by 38 populist parties in 21 European democracies in national elections taking place between 2016 and 2023.

Nepal's Policies and Practices for Gender Equality

The development policy of the government of Nepal based the article on gender equality, inclusion, and its relationship with development in the context of the current federal structure. This article focused on two objectives: to examine the institutional contributions to gender equality and inclusion and to learn how to participate and benefit from the development activities and services on an equal basis. Gender inclusion in the development sector is defined as the participation, decision-making roles, responsibilities, attributes, and power relations in all development government sectors. Using secondary sources, this article gathered and reviewed related literature from books, articles, election commission reports, related acts, policies, and constitutions, as well as collected profiles. 31.1 percent of people who find this article are elected, 58.9 percent of them are men, and 41.1 percent of them are women. In province No. 5, there are 22.28 percent of elected officials, of whom 58.78 percent are men and 41.22 percent are women. In Province No. 6, a total of 29.73 percent of candidates are elected and 26.73 percent of the province's 7 candidates are elected, with 59 percent being men and 41 percent being women. Gender equity and its relationship to government among elected candidates is quite high compared to what the Nepal Constitution of 2072 and various political parties' election manifestos of 2074 allotted, as the Nepal Constitution of 2072 stated that every political party must include at least 33 percent women in all of its political activities, including elections. Considering gender when making decisions and giving women leadership roles. Lack of participation in local development activities, allocation of gender-sensitive funds, and policy- and program-making.

Education in the Centenary of the Republic: An Assessment of the Educational Promises in the 2023 AK Party Election Manifesto

Bu çalışmanın amacı, Ak Parti 2023 Seçim Beyannamesinde yer verilen eğitime ilişkin hedeflerin daha önceki seçim dönemlerine ait Ak Parti seçim beyannameleriyle karşılaştırmalı olarak incelenmesidir. Bu amaçla nitel araştırma yöntemine bağlı olarak doküman incelemesinin kullanıldığı bu çalışmada temel veri kaynağı olarak 2002, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2018 ve 2023 Ak Parti seçim beyannameleri kullanılmıştır. Çalışmada elde edilen bulgulara göre 2023 Seçim Beyannamesinin daha önceki seçim beyannamelerinde yer verilen vaatlerden bir kısmını içerdiği, genel olarak tüm kademelerde eğitimde niteliğin ve uluslararası alanda başarının artırılmasının hedeflendiği, 2023 dönemi için okul öncesi dönem ve ilköğretim kademeleri ile ilgili vaatlerin çok sınırlı kaldığı, lise kademesi için meslek eğitimlerinin, piyasa ihtiyaçlarının gözetildiği, yükseköğretimde farklı kurumlarla işbirliğinin, uluslararası sıralamalarda başarı elde etmenin ve uluslararasılaşmanın öne çıktığı görülmüştür. Hayat boyu öğrenmede dijitalleşme becerilerine, dezavantajlı grupların eğitiminde fırsat eşitliğinin sağlanmasına, öğrenme ortamlarının teknoloji ile desteklenmesine, eğitimde dijitalleşme ve yapay zekaya ayrıca yer verildiği görülmüştür. Müfredat konusunda çağın gereklerine göre değişikliklerin yapılmaya ve öğretmen niteliklerinin artırılması için ihtiyaç duyulan eğitimlere devam edileceği ifade edilmiştir. 2023 seçim beyannamesi genel olarak değerlendirildiğinde eğitim konusuna günümüz dünyası ve ülke ihtiyaçlarının gözetilerek yaklaşıldığı, hedeflerin eğitimin geleceği ile ilgili umut vaat etse de zayıf yönlerinin olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.

Role of Cyber Security in Building Smart Bangladesh by Ensuring Smart Bangladesh Vision, 2041: A Critical Analysis

The promise made by the Awami League in its election manifesto before the 2008 National Parliament elections to form 'Digital Bangladesh' by 2021 is now visible. This digital Bangladesh has changed the course of development progress in the country. Looking ahead to the year 2041, the new challenge is smart Bangladesh. This smart Bangladesh will make people's lives easier; everything will be at hand. Bangabandhu is the dreamer of digital Bangladesh. The fairy-tale country 'Smart Bangladesh' will come into the hands of Sheikh Hasina. Now the question is: What is smart Bangladesh? Why is it necessary? How will it be implemented? Smart Bangladesh refers to a technology-based lifestyle where everything from all types of civic services can be done smartly. Every citizen will get guaranteed rights and an excellent opportunity to fulfill duties without suffering. The Awami League government, under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina, has taken up the future action plan by dividing the outline of that smart Bangladesh into four parts. It is possible to realize the Smart Bangladesh Theory through the proper implementation of the words smart citizen, smart economy, smart government, and smart society. A step forward from digital Bangladesh, the new vision of smart Bangladesh is expressed here to further advance the services of citizen life. Special sectors have been chosen to further modernize civic and social life, such as smart citizens, smart economies, smart governments, and smart societies. In order to develop the mentioned issues in a smart way, there must be a guarantee of safe and dynamic information technology, so there is no substitute for safe technology or cyber security in building a smart Bangladesh.

The Impact of Incumbent/Opposition Status and Ideological Similitude on Emotions in Political Manifestos

The study involved the analysis of emotion-associated language in the UK Conservative and Labour party general election manifestos between 2000 to 2019. While previous research have shown a general correlation between ideological positioning and overlap of public policies, there are still conflicting results in matters of sentiments in such manifestos. Using new data, we present how valence level can be swayed by party status within government with incumbent parties presenting a higher frequency in positive emotion-associated words while negative emotion-associated words are more prevalent in opposition parties. We also demonstrate that parties with ideological similitude use positive language prominently further adding to the literature on the relationship between sentiments and party status.

‘Void’ democrats? The populist notion of ‘democracy’ in action

Populism is often seen as a threat to liberal democracy because of its rejection of constitutional constraints and emphasis on popular sovereignty. Others argue that populism is a corrective to mainstream politics and not necessarily anti-democratic. While the relationship between populism and democracy is widely debated in theory and empirically assessed by estimating the effect of populist rule, we analyse discursive references to democracy in election manifestos and tweets of populist radical right (PRRP) and populist radical left (PRLP) parties in seven Western European countries. By mapping populists’ discourses on democracy across electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative and egalitarian dimensions, we find that PRLP elaborate a more coherent understanding of democracy (especially its participatory and egalitarian dimensions) and do not reject any dimension. PRRP hardly elaborate on any dimension except participation. PRRP appear as ‘void’ democrats with ambivalent and incoherent credentials, which at times reject and instrumentalise democracy.

Politicizing the minimum wage: A multilingual text analysis of minimum wages in European electoral manifestos

This article examines the determinants of the growing political salience of minimum wages in European party manifestos. By using multilingual quantitative text analysis, I show that the electoral salience of minimum wages has increased in the past decades. Although left-wing parties emphasize minimum wages more than right-wing parties, I find that the electoral salience of this policy follows a U-shaped relationship: right-wing populist parties dedicate greater attention to minimum wages than centre-right parties do. A sentiment analysis finds that compared to other policies designed to supplement the income of low-wage workers, such as strengthening collective bargaining institutions and in-work benefits/wage subsidies, there do not seem to be specific party-political characteristics, which determine the sentiment with which discussions on minimum wages are framed.

Populist Radical Right Parties and the Rhetoric of Emotions. The Slovak Case Study

This article analyses the emotional rhetoric of the populist radical right parties in Slovakia - the Slovak National Party (SNS) and the People's Party Our Slovakia (ĽSNS) - in their 2016 and 2020 election manifestos. Emotional rhetoric, or pathos, consists of emotional appeals, and this article looks specifically at four discrete appeals to emotions: retrospective anger and enthusiasm; and prospective fear and hope, and connects these emotional appeals with topics according to their relevance. This research utilises qualitative content analysis drawing categories from the field of political psychology. Unexpectedly, it is found that positive emotional appeals are generally more common than negative ones in the election manifestos of the populist radical right. The second finding is that populist radical right parties with government experience apply a very different strategy in their emotional rhetoric. The more extreme ĽSNS, without government experience, relies more on the negative emotional appeal of anger, and SNS, with extensive government experience, relies on the positive emotional appeals of hope and enthusiasm. Furthermore, these cases confirm the hypothesis that a populist radical right party that uses more appeals to anger has greater success in general elections.

Do electoral candidates reflect or select campaign issues? The influence of electoral manifestos on online communication

This article investigates the influence of electoral manifestos on the online communication of electoral candidates. Our study addresses electoral candidates’ conflict between party discipline and individual issue prioritisation. Building on the salience framework, we examine the thematic congruence between manifestos and online communication. Moreover, we test which issues are emphasised during the 2017 German federal election campaign. To this end, we created an original topic dictionary based on party manifestos. Applying the dictionary, we classify 143,969 tweets by 797 candidates. Our analyses demonstrate that manifestos shape the online communication of electoral candidates substantially. The findings show that electoral candidates of left–wing parties focus on core issues over time. Our results not only highlight the authority of party leadership, but also suggest that politicians do not tap the whole potential of online communication.

Conditional environmentalism of right-wing populism in power: ideology and/or opportunities?

ABSTRACT This study focuses on right-wing populists (RWP) in power and their discourses and policy preferences on environmental issues. Through a content and frame analysis of electoral manifestos, party communication and semi-structured, in-depth interviews with party representatives, this paper examines whether ideological or contextual factors (political opportunities) determine RWP positioning on the environment. By focusing on the only three cases in Europe of RWP in government in a prominent position, i.e. alone or as a major coalition partner (also representing key ideological varieties of RWP), Law and Justice – PiS in Poland; Fidesz in Hungary and Lega in Italy, this study shows that ideological positions (and especially differences) are less important in determining RWP environmental discourses than are opportunities and institutionalization. Moreover, we also find that the shared features across these actors reflect a conditional, ‘yes-but’ environmentalism of these parties, embedded in the discourse of ecological modernization and oppositional, Manichean framing.

Looking Back on Corruption: Representations of Corruption and Anti-corruption in Czech Party Manifestos between 1990–2017

This study follows the constructivist tradition of corruption research. Specifically, we analyze representations of corruption and anti-corruption in the electoral manifestos of Czech political parties and movements between 1990 and 2017. In these documents, corruption is primarily construed as a security issue and is framed within the context of economic and organized crime. The causes of corruption, the main actors behind it, and the proposed countermeasures draw on three dominant discourses: neoliberal, centrist, and populist. Neoliberal discourse attributes corruption to the overextended nature of the state, with public officials as the primary perpetrators of corruption. Countermeasures are based on streamlined public administration and personal accountability of government employees in this discourse. Centrist discourse sees the interweaving of economic and political power as the cause of corruption perpetrated by the mafia or lobbyists. Countermeasures are rooted in legal regulation and cooperation with anti-corruption forces in this discourse. Populist discourse provides an updated interpretation of the former two discourses. It borrows the metaphoric labeling of perpetrators from the centrist repertoire and the logic behind the proposed countermeasures from neoliberal discourse. In the conclusion, we compare our findings with the political constructions of corruption in other cultural contexts. We also shed light on some of the circumstances that may have contributed to framing corruption as a security issue in Czechia.

Mainstreaming of Social Protection Agenda in the Political Parties' Election Manifesto in Nepal

Social protection is indispensable for poverty reduction, a dignified life, and a secure future. According to the concept of a socialist public welfare state, it is the responsibility of the state to provide social security to facilitate the lives of weak, disadvantaged, and vulnerable communities and to ensure quality, safe, and protected lives of all citizens. Thus, social protection agenda are intrinsically political in nature. This paper is based on review of manifestos of various political parties in Nepal for the local, provincial, and federal elections. It was noted that the provisions for education, health, infrastructural development, social protection allowances, shelter, rest homes, care centers, and drinking water among other topics, have been covered in the manifestos of the major political parties. However, the social protection provisions are vague and do not exclusively cover the most vulnerable populations, including children, youths, sexual and gender minority children, and people with disabilities. It further proves that social protection allowances and schemes proposed by political parties are heavily skewed toward elderly citizens. The political parties need to be more capacitated, sensitive, committed, and aware of the multiple dimensions of social protection to ensure complete political ownership of the agenda.

The Politics of Health Policy Agenda Setting in India: The Case of the PMJAY Program

ABSTRACT In 2018, India’s Prime Minister announced a new health insurance program, Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), aiming to cover over 500 million people. This paper seeks to document and explain the emergence of PMJAY on India’s political and policy agendas. We analyze media, election manifestos, legislative debates, and health budgets to compare PMJAY’s presence on India’s policy agenda to previous health programs. We then apply Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework to explain the program’s emergence and adoption, validating our data and interpretations through consultations with Indian health policy experts. Comparing respective launch years, PMJAY was covered in national newspapers 37 to 212 times more than previous flagship health programs, although it was not more prominent in parliamentary debates or in the health budget. Events in the problem, politics, and policy streams converged to enable its prominence. Health policy elites who favored insurance as a policy to address out-of-pocket health expenditures gained influence after the 2014 election victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). PMJAY’s naming and branding, scale, timing, implementation style, and design aligned with both the BJP’s ideology and political strategy. PMJAY represents the increased prominence of health programs in Indian politics, although primarily on the political and media agenda, rather than on the budgetary and legislative agenda during this period. The political forces that facilitated its emergence also shaped its design in ways that are likely to affect the Indian health system’s ability to provide comprehensive financial protection in the future.