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Choices Parties Define

Policy Alternatives in Representative Elections, 17 Countries 1945–1998

Essex Summer School in Quantitative Social Science; Manifesto Research Project; Department of Government, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ, UK; budgi{at}essex.ac.uk

Michael D. McDonald

Department of Politics, Binghamton University, SUNY, Bartle Library Bldg, Binghamton, NY, 13902, USA; mdmcd{at}binghamton.edu

Elections are the defining institution of democracy, in the sense of directly linking popular preferences to public policy. Which programme gets chosen depends on the outcome of the election. However, voters' choices are very much constrained by the policy packages parties put forward in the first place. In most representative elections, no alternatives can be voted on apart from those advocated by established parties, who thus play a role almost equal to electors in defining the election outcome. This article examines the policy choices offered by parties in their published programmes over 17 post-war democracies – uncovering a wide variety of patterns with only limited links to type of election system or number of parties. Voters always have a choice, though in some countries it is more limited and less nuanced than in others.

Key Words: alternatives • choice • democracy • elections • manifestos • policy

Party Politics, Vol. 12, No. 4, 451-466 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1354068806064727


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