Fifteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

During an electoral campaign, political parties make various promises that they undertake to fulfill once elected. Over the last decades, there has beena proliferation of more or less sophisticated tools making it possible to follow the pledge made during the campaigns, and, then their completion or not during the governance periods. Until now, there are 39 pledge tracking tools distributed across the globe. But what effect do these tools have on citizens’ perceptions of political parties and political institutions? Voting behavior theories offer some insight into citizens, taking into consideration of pledge fulfillment, but little by comparing it with other conventional variables of the funnel of causality and, above all, by isolating this factor. Using an experimental research design with a conjoint analysis, this study aims to measure the importance, for citizens, of the fulfillment of pledges by comparing it with several other factors that come into consideration when citizens evaluate a party. The results show that citizens attach great importance to the results of promise trackers and we call for more caution with regard to the methodologies inherent to these tools.