How do macroeconomic conditions affect the party-policy relation? A study of pledge fulfilment in times of economic hardship

This project investigates how the economic performance of a country affects the policymaking process and the party-policy linkage. More specifically, this research focuses on periods of economic downturn and explores whether governing parties are able to prioritise the adoption of their policy preferences even in times of recession. Drawing on a literature that explores pledge fulfilment to determine the congruence between parties’ policy preferences and policies adopted, I investigate this topic using novel data on the realisation of electoral programs in Italy (1996-2018) and existing data on pledge fulfilment in seven democratic countries. By combining research on economic crisis with partisan and pledge studies, I argue that even though it is surely true that pledge fulfilment rates decrease during an economic downturn, partisan actors maintain a certain control over the policy implementation. Indeed, while a deterioration in the economic conditions of a country has a detrimental effect on public budgets, it might as well open up new opportunities and give parties new incentives, not least electoral ones, to carry out their policy proposals.