Single Review on past events

Elisa Deiss-Helbig (Research Fellow / Politics and Public Administration) gave a talk entitled "Understanding political inequality via electoral promises and their fulfilment".

Abstract:

Political equality, a foundational tenet of democracy, is currently under scrutiny across diverse democracies. Across a wide range of democracies, a burgeoning literature has revealed that public policy fails to represent the interests of a range of different constituencies. This research casts serious doubt on the realization of the democratic ideal. Despite the fact that electoral promises are highly relevant to government policies, we lack empirical evidence about political inequality at the early stages of policy formulation and how it evolves over the subseqent stages of the policy-making process.

This presentation delves into my research on electoral promises and their fulfilment, contributing valuable insights to our comprehension of unequal representation. Key questions guide this exploration: Which social groups are the recipients of electoral promises, and how do these promises materialize into tangible actions? Furthermore, an exploration of individual-level variations in the deservingness perceptions of a wide range of social groups, will deepen our understanding of the formulation and fulfillment of electoral promises. Additionally, from the demand-side, the discussion will explore how citizens respond to targeted promises within electoral programs and what conditions their reactions to the fulfillment and breach of these promises. By doing so, I aim to shed light on parties' incentives in making and fulfilling promises for specific social groups, providing valuable insights into the broader landscape of democratic representation.