Thackeray David, Toye Richard
University of Exeter, UK.
20 Century Br Hist. 2020 Mar 1;31(1):1-26. doi: 10.1093/tcbh/hwz033.
This article explores the issue of electoral promises in twentieth-century Britain-how they were made, how they were understood, and how they evolved across time. It does so through a study of general election manifestos (issued by political parties) and election addresses (issued on behalf of individual candidates). The premise of the article is that exploring the act of making promises illuminates the development of political communication and democratic representation, and that considering the print culture and circulation history aspects of addresses and manifestos helps us understand the relationship between the process of pledging and actual policy outcomes. The article further argues that the Labour Party was an innovator that helped push changes in the ways in which policies were promoted to the electorate. It posits that the years 1900-97 saw an important but slow and contested shift towards a more programmatic form of politics. This did not always favour policies of state expansion, but it did favour promises of state action.
本文探讨了20世纪英国选举承诺的问题——承诺是如何做出的，如何被理解的，以及它们如何随时间演变。本文通过研究大选宣言（由政党发布）和竞选声明（代表个别候选人发布）来进行探讨。本文的前提是，探究做出承诺的行为能够阐明政治沟通和民主代表制的发展，并且考虑竞选声明和宣言的印刷文化及传播历史方面有助于我们理解承诺过程与实际政策结果之间的关系。本文进一步认为，工党是一个创新者，它推动了向选民宣传政策方式的变革。它假定，1900年至1997年间发生了一场重要但缓慢且充满争议的转变，即朝着一种更具纲领性的政治形式转变。这并不总是有利于国家扩张政策，但确实有利于国家行动的承诺。
