Democratic Mandates: What Politicians Promise and Fail to Deliver

This book presents a comprehensive analysis of the established and expanding body of research on promissory representation. It examines how context shapes what political parties promise during campaigns and whether they deliver once in power. The book focuses on established Western democracies such as the USA, UK, France, Germany, and Australia, as well as emerging and non-Western democracies, namely Ukraine, Indonesia and India. It reveals tactical promises designed to win votes but never meant to be fulfilled, vague promises that avoid accountability, contentious pledges that undermine liberal values when implemented, and long-term commitments that defer responsibility across generations. The book shows how formal and informal institutions shape promise-making and keeping, and how research on election pledges can hold politicians to account. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of political parties and party politics, elections and campaigning, and more broadly democracy and comparative politics.