Promises Made, Promises Kept?

Using an innovative mix of cross-national analyses, original survey experiments, and detailed case studies across advanced democracies, Promises Made, Promises Kept? provides a compelling exploration of how globalization constrains domestic politics and transforms the nature of democratic representation. The authors show how globalization reduces the ability of governing parties to keep their campaign promises and how parties strategically adapt to this by making vaguer promises or shifting their rhetoric to manage voter expectations. These adaptations have significant consequences: They reshape democratic competition and have contributed to the growing appeal of populist messaging. This timely and accessible book offers fresh insight into why promises are broken, how parties adapt under pressure, and what this means for voters, institutions, and the future of democratic politics. It is essential reading for anyone concerned with the health of democracy in an interdependent world. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Christina J. Schneider is Professor of Political Science at the University of California San Diego and author of Conflict, Negotiation and European Union Enlargement (Cambridge University Press, 2008) and The Responsive Union (Cambridge University Press, 2018), an award-winning book. She has held positions at Oxford, Princeton, and the Max Planck Institute of Economics.

Robert Thomson is Professor of Politics at the University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on international comparisons of democratic representation, policymaking, and international governance. He cofounded the Comparative Pledges Project, an international research program on parties’ election campaign promises.