Party Manifestos Research Articles

Limited Congruence: Citizens’ Attitudes and Party Rhetoric About Referendums and Deliberative Practices

Both citizens and political parties refer to novel participatory practices in the contemporary crisis of representative democracy. Survey data indicate a growing demand for such practices within the electorate, while political parties have also begun discussing them more frequently. However, previous studies on citizens’ attitudes and parties’ discourse on democratic innovations rarely speak to each other. It remains unclear whether citizens’ attitudes and parties’ discourse are congruent. This article seeks to address this gap in the literature and analyses the extent to which political parties reflect citizens’ attitudes towards referendums and citizens’ deliberation in their manifestos. We cover 15 political parties in Germany and the UK. Our analysis uses party manifesto data between 2010 and 2024, and data from surveys conducted on national representative samples. Our findings reveal that political parties and citizens rarely have congruent approaches towards referendums and deliberative practices. People’s enthusiasm about referendums is hardly reflected in parties’ rhetoric, but the latter reacts gradually to the public appetite for deliberation. There are visible differences between opposition parties and those in government.

Partisan Politics in Finland

Abstract Traditionally, the Finnish party system has involved a high level of fragmentation yet remarkable stability, consensual decision-making, ideologically broad government coalitions, and mostly modest levels of polarization between parties or voters. These features suggest a limited effect of the party composition of government on economic policy. However, based on studies on close local elections, parliamentary speech, and party manifestos, we argue that the link between party politics and policy outcomes likely plays a role in Finland. Most analyses have examined the extent to which the characteristics of local politicians within the parties affect policy outcomes. These studies show that occupation, education, experience, competence, and residential location of local politicians strongly affect local policies, indicating that, in general, politics matters for policy. We also discuss how consensual national politics may have contributed to the recent success of the populist challenger Finns Party. As a new major player, the party has emphasized the role of sociocultural issues and especially affective polarization, which represents a considerable paradigm shift from the catch-all party policies typical of Finland for many decades. It is thus possible that the link between politics and policy will become more pronounced in the future, motivating further research.

When is gender on party agendas? Manifestos and (De-)democratisation in Greece, Portugal, and Spain

ABSTRACT When do political parties give attention to gender-related political interests, and what determines their positions? We argue that progress in gender equality commitments is an essential component of democratisation, and backsliding in these indicates democratic decay. Using original data coded from party manifestos in Greece, Portugal, and Spain over recent decades, we investigate the role of party ideology and critical junctures in the political context. We find that left-wing parties give more attention to gender-related interests than other parties. Far-right parties also give significant attention to some interests and stand out for traditional positions. Further, the economic recession significantly decreased attention to gender-related interests. Our results suggest that economic crises and associated far-right party strength fuel gender backsliding and de-democratisation.

Current climate action trends in party‐political manifestos: A content analysis provides hints to move forward

AbstractParty manifestos offer valuable insights into evolving climate political agendas, warranting relevant content to understand parties' priorities and approaches to climate resilience. Through a content analysis of Portuguese party manifestos from the 2019, 2022, and 2024 elections, this study aims to address key research questions regarding SDG 13 targets. The results demonstrate a positive trend within SDG 13, albeit predominantly focused on targets 13.1 and 13.2. Left‐wing parties exhibit stronger commitment compared to their right‐wing counterparts, with variations observed based on European affiliations. Across all SDG 13 targets, left‐wing party manifestos consistently covered a broader spectrum of themes compared to their right‐wing counterparts. Green parties exhibit a partial higher commitment relative to the dominant governance parties in Portugal, which is recently governed by a right‐wing coalition. Findings aim to inform and potentiate refinement of climate policy agendas, contributing to future sustainability initiatives in Portugal and beyond.

Planning and party manifestos in recent UK general elections

In a democracy, a commonly held idea is that political parties present their programmes for government before elections so that people know what they are voting for. It is then often held that governments should follow what they have said, when in government. These programmes may take several forms, but the most common one is the party manifesto. Here the aim is to consider how planning elements have figured in manifestos. Manifestos are surveyed from the four UK general elections 2010–2019, concentrating on those of the Conservative and Labour parties. How far did planning figure in manifestos? Were there big differences between parties and elections? To what extent did a winning party follow its manifesto? Manifestos tread a complicated line between clear ideological statements and more immediately tuned electoral political considerations. Some implications are drawn out for how planning actors may relate to manifestos in the future.

The comparative politics of solidarity: Political party discourse across three welfare state regimes

AbstractParty political conflict plays an essential role in shaping welfare policies, while they are simultaneously also shaped by these policies. As political parties grapple with the wicked challenges of our times, new forms of solidarity and solidarity conflicts arise across welfare regimes. Despite their significance, these dynamics have not received much recent attention. Our article aims to fill this gap. Through content analysis of party manifestos, we compare the solidarity frames of political parties within and between three distinct welfare regimes—Flanders (Belgium), Sweden, and the United States. Our results confirm our expectations drawn from political feedback literature: while party ideology influences parties' solidarity frame preferences and solidarity conflicts between parties, these preferences and conflicts are also influenced by a welfare regime's societal solidarity norms. Our article highlights the value of analyzing solidarity frames and political solidarity conflicts within welfare‐state regimes to better understand welfare politics and policies.Related ArticlesKönig, Pascal D. 2015. “Moral Societal Renewal or Getting the Country Back to Work: Welfare State Culture as a Resource and a Constraint for Policy Discourse.” Politics & Policy 43(5): 647–78. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12130.Mioni, Michele, 2021. “The ‘Good Citizen’ as a ‘Respectable Worker:’ State, Unemployment, and Social Policy in the United Kingdom and Italy, 1930 to 1950.” Politics & Policy 49(4): 913–39. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12425.Wagle, Udaya R. 2014. “The Heterogeneity Politics of the Welfare State: Changing Population Heterogeneity and Welfare State Policies in High‐Income OECD Countries, 1980‐2005.” Politics & Policy 41(6): 947–84. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12053.

Comparing Regional and National Climate Policy Preferences: An Analysis of Political Parties in the Basque Country and Catalonia

Abstract Recent research has uncovered positive connections between parties’ center-periphery and climate policy preferences when they compete in regional elections, with pro-periphery parties using climate concerns to bolster their territorial claims. However, the particular significance of climate change at the regional level, due to its more direct impacts in this arena, raises questions about the extent to which these parties replicate similar behaviors in national elections. To address this gap, this article analyzes the manifestos of parties that secured representation during the 2016 and 2019 Spanish general elections, as well as in the regional elections held during overlapping periods in Catalonia (2017 and 2021) and the Basque Country (2016 and 2020). The empirical findings reveal that parties with stronger pro-decentralization and pro-independence stances allocate more content to climate change and adopt more favorable positions on this issue in their regional manifestos compared to their national counterparts.

Mapping sovereignism(s) in South America

AbstractSovereignism is said to be on the rise: defending a nation's political autonomy, international borders, and cultural identity and protecting the domestic economy from the perils of globalisation are core demands. What about Latin America? To what extent are sovereignist claims a key component of Latin American parties' platforms and rhetoric? How do these vary according to national contexts and ideological foundations? Is sovereignism truly novel in the region? This article, relying on qualitative analyses of party manifestos from six different countries, as well as on data from the Manifesto Project, aims to map Latin American sovereignism in its different dimensions (political, economic, cultural, international) according to country and party families. As our data show, claims for defending or achieving ‘sovereignty’ are a key component of the (mostly left‐wing) populist idiolect in the region. The Latin American extreme right tends to adopt a sovereignist rhetoric to justify a traditional pro‐market agenda. The article overall calls for a problematisation of the concept of ‘sovereignism’ by proposing a stronger cross‐regional perspective. There are different ‘varieties of sovereignism’ depending on whether state sovereignty is primarily viewed as something to be restored or, alternatively, to be achieved (as is the case in South America).

Assessment of the Election Manifestos of Uzbekistan Political Parties Between 2019-2024

Election manifestos are important policy documents for political parties. These documents are published before the election periods and are an important observation document for the evaluation of the promises and policies of political parties in the post-election period. In line with these documents, voters can track whether the promises made are fulfilled or not. These declarations include certain issues. Generally, these issues consist of areas where policy will be produced continuously in democratic societies. Accordingly, the election declarations prepared by the political parties of Uzbekistan for the period between 2019-2024 were examined. The discourses of each political party on the economy, judiciary, health, education and foreign policy, which are common in their election manifesto, were examined. This study aims to determine the similarities and differences in the common issues determined in the election manifestos of the political parties of Uzbekistan.

Some policies matter more: party salience and interest group access to political parties in Western democracies

ABSTRACT Political parties and interest groups play important roles in incorporating societal interests into democratic decision-making. Recent studies have analysed the causes of interactions between individual political parties and interest groups and of interest groups’ choices to seek access to one or more parties. Meanwhile, we know less about why some parties grant access to a range of interest groups while others focus on a few. This article theorises about party strategies and suggests that party salience – that is parties’ emphasis on different policy areas – affects the range of interest groups to which they grant access. I combine interest group survey data from six European democracies with data from party manifestos and use regression analyses to test this hypothesis. I find that parties provide access to multiple interest groups representing various interests in legislative politics and, above all, in policy areas that are salient to them. Thus, parties are more likely to be aware of diverse interests’ perspectives on policies in areas they prioritise. The results have important implications for our understanding of the consequences of party–interest group interactions in democracies.

Enhancing the design of voting advice applications with BERT language model.

The relevance and importance of voting advice applications (VAAs) are demonstrated by their popularity among potential voters. On average, around 30% of voters take into account the recommendations of these applications during elections. The comparison between potential voters' and parties' positions is made on the basis of VAA policy statements on which users are asked to express opinions. VAA designers devote substantial time and effort to analyzing domestic and international politics to formulate policy statements and select those to be included in the application. This procedure involves manually reading and evaluating a large volume of publicly available data, primarily party manifestos. A problematic part of the work is the limited time frame. This study proposes a system to assist VAA designers in formulating, revising, and selecting policy statements. Using pre-trained language models and machine learning methods to process politics-related textual data, the system produces a set of suggestions corresponding to relevant VAA statements. Experiments were conducted using party manifestos and YouTube comments from Japan, combined with VAA policy statements from six Japanese and two European VAAs. The technical approaches used in the system are based on the BERT language model, which is known for its capability to capture the context of words in the documents. Although the output of the system does not completely eliminate the need for manual human assessment, it provides valuable suggestions for updating VAA policy statements on an objective, i.e., bias-free, basis.

A Critical Study on the Rise of Regional Party and Weakening of National Party in Tamil Nadu with Special Reference to Chennai

The political landscape of Tamil Nadu has witnessed a significant transformation characterised by the ascendancy of regional parties and the concurrent weakening of national parties. This research delves into the underlying factors contributing to this phenomenon and its implications for the state's political trajectory.Drawing on a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, this study examines historical trends, electoral data, party manifestos, and socio-political dynamics to elucidate the rise of regional parties such as the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), alongside the diminishing influence of national parties like the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).Key drivers identified include linguistic identity politics, regional pride, historical grievances, charismatic leadership, and effective mobilization strategies. Additionally, socio-economic factors such as caste dynamics, welfare policies, and regional disparities play a crucial role in shaping voter preferences and party allegiances.The ramifications of this shift extend beyond electoral outcomes to governance, policy formulation, and federal dynamics. The dominance of regional parties has led to the prioritization of state-centric issues and the articulation of Tamil Nadu's distinct socio-cultural identity within the Indian federal framework.By offering a comprehensive analysis of the rise of regional parties and the decline of national parties in Tamil Nadu, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of sub-nationalism, federalism, and political decentralisation within the Indian context.This research follows a empirical research method and a total of 202 samples have been collected through questionnaire.

The Emigration Conundrum: EU Countries of Origin of Migrants Between Integration and Demarcation

AbstractBased on an analysis of parliamentary debates and party manifestos from 2000 to 2022 in three EU countries of emigration, this article responds to the following question: How emigration is discussed in the political discourse, by whom and why? The research on Poland, Portugal and Romania reveals that parties of the left and right address the societal impacts of emigration whilst simultaneously acknowledging the appreciation of citizens of EU freedoms. Tackling this conundrum, parties call for domestic demarcation for an issue that is partially European. They advocate for state intervention to improve working and living conditions and express concern for the sustainability of the national community responding to demographic changes. The variation amongst the case countries is evident in the dominance of a rightist framing in Central and Eastern Europe, emphasizing state intervention and concerns for the nation, and a leftist framing in Southern Europe, advocating solely for state intervention into the economy. Differently structured party systems and strength of cleavages explain this variation.

Unlocking Potential: A Comprehensive Analysis of Inclusive Education Policies for Children with Disabilities in Nepal

Special Education Council was established in 1973 after the 1971 National Education System Plan transformed inclusive education in Nepal. Despite delays, 2015 constitutional mandates and 2019 National Education Policy support inclusive education. This review article examines Nepal's inclusive education policies from 1996 to 2017 focusing on changes and challenges. Recent successes include the 2010 ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the 2018 Compulsory and Free Education Act. The 2019 policy merger and 2076 Education Policy lack inclusive education implementation plans, indicating areas needing improvement. Utilizing Policy Implementation Theory alongside SWOT Analysis, this study endeavors to assess the efficacy of existing policies, evaluate historical adaptations, and scrutinize adherence to international commitments within the Nepalese context. As the International Institute for Educational Planning highlights, legislative frameworks play a pivotal role in fostering parity and inclusivity, underscoring the imperative for stakeholder consensus. Nepal's 2015 constitution meets international standards; however, physical accessibility is still a concern. The study focuses on accessibility, inclusive party laws, manifestos, and collaboration with OPDs, which are recommended for effective representation. Similarly, equal education and employment require inclusive curriculum design and barrier removal in inclusive education and vocational training. Nepal faces policy discrepancies, a lack of trained special educators, and insufficient resources. Implementing inclusive education policies in Nepal is challenging due to contextual, organizational, and policy barriers. It requires infrastructure investments, awareness campaigns, and targeted regulations. Infrastructure investments, awareness campaigns, and targeted regulations are needed implementing inclusive education policies in Nepal is complicated by contextual, organizational, and policy barriers. The study recommends a comprehensive, situation-specific strategy using school psychologists to promote inclusive mindsets in technical and vocational education with invest in infrastructure development to ensure physical accessibility for individuals with disabilities and enact policies that promote inclusive practices within educational and vocational training institutions.

Discursive Representation of Social Actors in Selected Speeches of the Former Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe

This study investigates the discursive devices deployed by the late former Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe, to represent social actors in his speeches, in order to unveil how these devices and the ideologies in them are mobilized to maintain political power and garner popular support. The data for the study comprise his: 2002 world summit on sustainable development speech in South Africa, 2005 party manifesto speech in Zimbabwe, 2003 Non-aligned speech in Malaysia, and 2007 UN speech in New York. These were subjected to qualitative analysis with insights from Teun A. van Dijk’s socio-cognitive model of Critical Discourse Analysis. The study reveals that Mugabe uses discursive polarization strategies to emphasize positive things/de-emphasize negative things about his in-group (himself, Zanu-PF, the majority black, majority Zimbabwean supporters, and the third-world country allies), but emphasizes negative things/de-emphasizes positive things about the out-group (the minority white Zimbabwean land grabbers, the USA, the UK, Tony Blair, George Bush, etc.). The discursive strategies identified were used to pursue land ownership, anti-imperialist, revolutionary, and Marxist ideologies. The study concludes that these strategies were employed by Mugabe as linguistic, rhetorical and political strategies to maintain power and mobilize the support of majority black Zimbabweans for years.

When are Populist Parties Populist? A Study of Populist Sentiment in Election Manifestos of Germany’s AfD and Die Linke

ABSTRACT In recent years, interest has grown in using election manifestos to measure populism. This, however, is not without its controversies, with critics arguing that party manifestos is an unlikely case for observing populist language. This paper discusses conceptual challenges associated with measuring populism in text-based data, specifically manifestos. Based on previous research, I argue that not all parts of manifestos are equally likely to contain populist language and that variation might be based on the issue being discussed. To test this point, I present a novel dataset containing 32 hand-coded election manifestos of German populist parties AfD and Die Linke. By utilising this data, I analyse the variation in populist sentiment within these manifestos and demonstrate that issues vary in their degree of populism employed and that this is partially related to what issues are salient to populist parties.

Independence in Europe: Regionalist Party Rhetoric and the EU in a Post-Brexit United Kingdom

Abstract In the wake of Brexit, how has the framing of the EU and independence evolved among regionalist parties in the devolved regions of the UK? The effects of a multilevel structure such as the EU on regionalist parties has been examined, yet European disintegration is novel and thus yet to be fully explored. Has the framing of the EU by these parties shifted, and if so, how? In this article, I analyze 19 regionalist party manifestos between 2011 and 2022 through the lens of rational choice and discursive institutionalism to examine the effects of Brexit on the framing of the EU. At a rhetorical level, these parties have engaged in the subsuming of the EU, rhetorically tying their independence or enhanced autonomy to Brexit. Sinn Féin, Scottish Nationalist Party, and Plaid Cymru have used the critical juncture of Brexit to incorporate the EU into their regionalist rhetoric. By examining the effects of European disintegration on regionalist political parties, we can better understand the role that current events play in the fluidity of party positions as presented in manifestos.

Polarisation or convergence? How the economy shapes party policy positions

ABSTRACT A well-studied hypothesis in the political economy literature is that economic globalisation leads to the convergence of economic policies because of increasing international constraints. However, little is known about how parties adapt their policy positions during economic crises. This paper investigates parties’ policy shifts in economically harsh times. It highlights the important distinction between long-term trends (e.g., economic integration) and relatively short-term economic fluctuations when studying party competition. During economic downturns parties have an incentive to intensify the debate on economic policies and emphasise their distinct policy positions. In other words, parties strategically position themselves on salient issues. The empirical analysis combines party manifesto data with macro-economic indicators and survey data from 28 European countries between 1980 and 2021. The findings show that party polarisation increases when the economy is in decline, and positions converge during economic recovery. Further analyses explore the mechanism and reveal an indirect effect: parties adjust their policy positions in reaction to changing voter priorities and grievances in times of economic distress. Overall, the article contributes to a larger literature on party competition and political responsiveness by showing that external shocks, such as economic crises, influence the diversity of political offers among established parties.

Auction politics: Party competition and expansionary election promises

AbstractParty competition sometimes resembles an auction, where parties seek to ‘buy’ elections through promises of economic largesse. In this article, I argue that whether parties engage in this practice will depend on political circumstances, such as the level of ideological competition. Incentives to promise more to voters will also vary depending on a party's electoral prospects: for parties that expect a significant level of government responsibility, promising too much is a risky strategy. I test these arguments by focusing on the spending commitments in party manifestos from 20 countries over the period 1945–2017. In line with expectations, parties tend to make more expansionary election pledges when ideological competition is more muted. In addition, left‐wing parties’ spending commitments are found to be influenced by their projected seat shares (based on opinion polls from before the start of the election campaign) relative to their competitors. Specifically, the stronger a left‐wing party's electoral prospects, the more fiscally conservative it tends to be, and vice versa.

Analyzing the Portrayal of Political Leadership in Leading Pakistani News Channels : A Critical Analysis

This study focuses on the framing theory as a lens to analyze the coverage and frames of political parties by two prominent news channels, Dunya News and Geo News. A comprehensive content analysis spanning over three months was conducted to assess the frequency, story types, frames, and tone of news coverage related to political leaders from 1st Sep 2023 to 20th Dec 2023 through purposive sampling. For this purpose, five themes, party manifesto, and plans, leader’s character, past performance of the party, voting worth, bias, and victimization were designed to explore the study’s objectives. The findings indicate a notable disparity in the salience given to political parties, with both news channels showing a higher emphasis on PMLN compared to PTI and PPP. Furthermore, the results reveal that Nawaz Sharif, received more favorable coverage from both news channels, followed by Imran Khan. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari receives comparable coverage to Imran Khan on Dunya News but notably less on Geo News. Additionally, the majority of the stance from these news channels leans in favor of PMLN leader Nawaz Sharif, while PTI leader Imran Khan tends to receive a more negative stance across both channels. A frames-wise analysis uncovers that Dunya News provides a more diverse range of perspectives when portraying political leaders, encompassing frames such as party manifesto, party previous performance, and voting worth, in contrast to Geo News, which maintains a more consistent distribution of emphasis across different frames. Findings also revealed that Nawaz Sharif’s frames prominently centered on the manifesto category. On the other hand, Imran Khan received coverage under the attributes of leaders’ character while party performance was a common attribute covered related to politicians.