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Electoral Competition, Political Promises and the “Responsible Party Government” Hypothesis

In: Power and Responsibility

Author

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  • Benoît Le Maux

    (University of Rennes 1, CREM-CNRS, Condorcet Center)

Abstract

This essay reviews the literature on the two main issues that characterize the responsible party government hypothesis: whether political parties have clear and distinct positions, and whether they hold to their pledges once elected. It brings together and summarizes the knowledge that has been gained in political economy and related disciplines since the first developments. Based on a critical confrontation of theories with the empirical literature, this essay concludes that the Downsian conception of political markets—i.e., partial or complete convergence of platforms towards moderate policies—is not necessarily adequate to explain political outcomes. As a matter of fact, parties are in most cases shown to be responsible in the sense that they differentiate their policies and hold to their political promises once elected. Several other causes of the current political distrust and disaffection are being identified.

Suggested Citation

  • Benoît Le Maux, 2023. "Electoral Competition, Political Promises and the “Responsible Party Government” Hypothesis," Springer Books, in: Martin A. Leroch & Florian Rupp (ed.), Power and Responsibility, pages 305-329, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-23015-8_17
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-23015-8_17
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Responsible parties; Electoral competition; Political promises; Downsian model; Party credibility; Policy convergence;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology
    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation

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