Acknowledgments

Five years, four continents, and one global pandemic. The earliest ideas for this book were sketched out between Australia and the United States; refined through countless drafts, virtual meetings, and occasional bouts of anxiety; and ultimately completed at opposite ends of Eurasia. Writing a book about democracy and globalization seemed like a daunting academic challenge at the outset – in retrospect, it turned out also to be an enriching experience in the practicalities of long-term and long-distance collaboration. If democratic representation under the constraints of globalization is complicated, coordinating research across time zones, lockdowns, and childcare schedules may be even harder, but no less rewarding.

From its initial conception to the final manuscript, this project benefited from years of theoretical refinement, empirical innovation, and – most importantly – the generous support and feedback of many colleagues and institutions. We are particularly grateful to our home institutions – the University of California San Diego, the University of Hong Kong, and Monash University – for the intellectual and material support they provided. Our colleagues were unfailingly generous in their feedback, whether through formal seminars or casual conversations.

For their constructive comments on various parts of the manuscript, we owe special thanks to Frank Algra-Maschio, Emiel Awad, Austin Beacham, David Bearce, Sarah Bush, Ricky Clark, Christina Cottiero, Alex Debs, Patrick Dumont, Nathan Fioritti, Bianca Freeman, Mike Goldfien, Julia Gray, Guy Grossman, Emilie Hafner-Burton, Christopher Kilby, Lauren Konken, David Lake, Ben Lauderdale, Blanche Leridon, Hauke Licht, Ed Mansfield, Theres Matthieß, Kelly Matush, Claas Mertens, Sophie Meunier, Andrew Moravcsik, Elin Naurin, Cleo O’Brien-Udry, Katrin Praprotnik, Tyler Pratt, Oli Proksch, Didac Queralt, Christian Rauh, Kim Scheppele, Stephan Schneider, Rachel Schoner, Branislav Slantchev, Jon Slapin, Arthur Spirling, Eric Thai, Jen Tobin, Jens Wäckerle, Lisa Waller, Alex Weisiger, Nina Wiesehomeier, and Juha Ylisalo.

We also benefited greatly from the insights of participants at the Political Representation and Behavior workshop at Cologne University and department workshops at the Australian National University, Griffith University, Princeton University, University of California San Diego, University of Göttingen, University of Graz, University of Hong Kong, University of Melbourne, University of Pennsylvania, University of Rochester, the Chinese University of Hong Kong at Shenzhen, and Yale University. Feedback from panels at the American Political Science Association, the European Union Studies Association, the International Political Economy Society, and the Political Economy of International Organization conferences likewise sharpened our thinking and analysis.

We owe a particular debt of gratitude to the researchers associated with the Comparative Pledges Project, a network of over sixty researchers from around the world who study campaign promises from a range of different perspectives. Collectively, their work has deepened our understanding of promissory representation, and they have contributed to data resources on which we draw in this study. Their regular workshops have also been opportunities for us to present our work and receive constructively critical feedback.

We also thank Elizabeth Simas for generously sharing her experimental instrument, which provided the foundation for our own survey design.

This book would not have been possible without the dedicated research assistance of Frank Algra-Maschio, Nathan Fioritti, Andrew Klassen, Bernadette La’O, Freda Meng, Theodoros Ntounias, and Emma Suissa.

We are especially grateful to the policymakers and experts who contributed to our case study of the UK Conservative Party’s migration promise and to the French citizens who contributed to our case study of the French government’s policy U-turn in the 1980s.

Anja Matt designed the cover that we think thoughtfully symbolizes some of the book’s main findings.

We acknowledge with appreciation the support of the Australian Research Council Discovery Project, “Internationalisation and Democracy” (DP200100256; coled by Christina J. Schneider and Robert Thomson), which funded most of the work that resulted in this book. In addition, as our work developed, we realized that promissory representation was an appropriate lens through which to view the impact of globalization on democratic representation, and our work converged with another Australian Research Council Discovery Project, “Promissory Democratic Representation: Campaign Promises in Australia” (DP210102480; coled by Patrick Dumont, Robert Thomson, and Lisa Waller). Similarly, as we explored the intricate effects of economic openness on national democracies, we adopted a more mixed-methods approach than we had initially envisaged, including cross-national observational analyses, a process-tracing case study, a survey experiment, and an interpretative case study of citizens’ perspectives. In doing so, we benefited from the support of a research grant from the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond), “Mixed Methods for Analyzing Political Parties’ Promises to Voters during Election Campaigns” (MXM19–1137:1; led by Elin Naurin).

At Cambridge University Press, we thank John Haslam for his steady encouragement and thoughtful guidance, as well as Carrie Parkinson for managing the review and production process with expertise. We are also indebted to our anonymous reviewers, whose detailed, pointed, and constructive feedback significantly improved the manuscript.

Finally, while we cannot name everyone who helped along the way, we are deeply thankful to all who supported, challenged, and inspired us whether through comments, conversations, or the occasional reminder that work and life benefit from taking broader perspectives. To them, and to everyone we forgot to mention: you know who you are, and we owe you thanks.