Definitions of Election Promises in Empirical Research

Abstract

The saying ‘A promise is a promise’ implies that it is obvious what a promise is and when it is fulfilled. It suggests that we intuitively can judge what should or should not be considered a promise.¹ Intuition, however, is not a sufficient condition in a scholarly approach to empirical investigations of election promises. In this chapter, I will describe the most obvious common denominators in the choices that scholars make when they define election promises and fulfilled election promises. This is important for the coming discussion about whether or not it is reasonable to claim that scholars’ choices of definitions can explain why citizens and scholars seem to come to different conclusions.²