Election Promises in the Spotlight: How the Visibility of Party Pledges in the Media Facilitates Their Fulfilment

Building on the mandate theory of democracy and the literature on media coverage of democratic elections, this paper theorizes why information regarding election pledges transmitted through the media affects the former’s fulfilment. It specifies that by making some election promises more visible than others, media make it difficult for parties to shirk from such commitments post-election. To test for the role of media in pledge fulfilment, the study utilizes an unique dataset composed of 3,083 promises made by 15 legislative parties over a 20-year period in post-communist Bulgaria, also indicating whether or not each pledge was reported by one of six major newspapers in the country, and if so, how many times. The study is the first to longitudinally test for the role of media in pledge fulfilment, while accounting for institutional and other explanations of the conditions that make it more likely for legislative parties to act on their promises post-elections. The paper’s conclusion speak to the facilitating role of media in pledge fulfillment under the conditions of coalition government, and illustrate the cumulative impact of media reporting of pledges.