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An election promise is a promise made to the public by a politician who is trying to win an election. They have long been a central element of elections and remain so today. Election promises are also notable for often being broken once a politician is in office. Image File history File links Gnome-globe. ... Political campaign Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box:      A political campaign is an organized effort to influence the decision making process within a group. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. ... Campaign finance refers to the means by which money is raised for election campaigns. ... In the past, political campaigns were conducted using traditional methods of personal contact, such as television and radio media purchasing, print advertising and direct mail. ... Opposition research often referred to as oppo is the section of an election campaign designed to investigate the life and record of the opposing candidate. ... Political consulting is the business which has grown up around advising and assisting political campaigns, primarily in the United States. ... In politics, campaign advertising is the use of paid media (newspapers, radio, television, etc. ... Canvassing is the systematic contacting of individuals in a target group, often in a particular geographic area. ... Get out the vote, sometimes GOTV, is a term used to describe two categories of political activity, both aimed at increasing the number of votes cast in one or more elections. ... Lawn signs placed near a polling place in the U.S., July 2004 Lawn signs are one of the most visible features of an election campaign in some countries. ... Negative campaigning is trying to win an advantage by referring to negative aspects of an opponent or of a policy rather than emphasizing ones own positive attributes or preferred policies. ... An attack ad in election terms is an advertisement whose message is meant as an attack against another candidate or political party. ... Fear mongering is often used in a time of war as a political tactic to frighten citizens and influence their political views. ... A push poll is a political campaign technique in which an individual or organization attempts to influence or alter the view of respondents under the guise of conducting a poll. ... A smear campaign or smear tactics are deliberate attempts by an individual or group to malign another individual or groups reputation. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Look up Candidate in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In United States and other democracies, political campaigns larger than a few individuals generally include a campaign manager whose role is to coordinate the campaigns operations. ... The staff of political campaigns are the people who get paid to formulate and implement the strategy needed to win an election. ... A promise is a transaction between two persons whereby the first person undertakes in the future to render some service or gift to the second person or devotes something valuable now and here to his use. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      A politician is an individual who is a formally recognized and active member of a government, or a person who influences the way a society is governed through an understanding of political power and group dynamics. ... An election is a decision making process where people choose people to hold official offices. ...

Elections promises are part of an election platform, but platforms also contain vague ideals and generalities as well as specific promises. They are an essential element in getting people to vote for a candidate. For example, a promise such as to cut taxes or to introduce new social programs may appeal to voters. A political platform is a list of the principles which a political party supports in order to appeal to the general public for the purpose of having said partys candidates voted into office. ...

Broken promises

A great number of election promises are broken. Many regard this as a severe issue that disaffects people from the entire political process, increasing apathy and lowering voter turnout.^{[citation needed]} Election promises have been broken for as long as elections have been held and this is likely to continue. Voters lining up outside a Baghdad polling station during the 2005 Iraqi election. ...

There are strong pressures on politicians to make promises which they cannot keep. A party that does not make exaggerated promises might appear bland, unambitious, and uninteresting to voters compared to the one that does. Sometimes this can give the exaggerating party an advantage over the truthful one. Government finances are extremely complex and promises are vague enough that the media and public can rarely say for certain that the numbers do not add up. Thus almost all parties continue to promise lower taxes, more social programs, and a balanced budget. For instance George W. Bush in the 2000 American presidential election promised all three and in the end abandoned balanced budgets. In the 2003 provincial election in Ontario, Canada, the Liberal Party also made all three promises and raised taxes once it found itself in government with an unbalanced budget.-1... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... From a Keynesian point of view, a balanced budget in the public sector is achieved when the government has enough fiscal discipline to be able to equate the revenues with expenditure over the business cycles. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2001. ... Presidential electoral votes by state. ... Map of Ontarios ridings and their popular vote for their party elected The Ontario Legislature after the 2003 election. ... Motto: Ut Incepit Fidelis Sic Permanet (Latin: Loyal she began, loyal she remains) Capital Toronto Largest city Toronto Official languages English Government - Lieutenant-Governor James K. Bartleman - Premier Dalton McGuinty (Liberal) Federal representation in Canadian Parliament - House seats 106 - Senate seats 24 Confederation July 1, 1867 (1st) Area Ranked 4th... The Ontario Liberal Party is a center-right provincial political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. ...

Promises are usually based on the rosiest of possible futures, a strong economy and cooperative leaders of legislatures and sub-national entities. Actual government planning done by bureaucrats generally plans for the worst possible future, but any politician that would plan in this manner would have a platform that is far less attractive than that of their opponents.

Adding caveats to promises based on economic performance would hurt the politician, and is also difficult to do in ten second news sound bites or thirty second commercials. In film and broadcasting, a soundbite is a very short piece of footage taken from a longer speech or an interview in which someone with authority says something which is considered by those who edit the speech or interview to be a most important point. ... Commercialism redirects here. ...

There is some latitude for breaking promises. George W. Bush's pledge to not involve the U.S. military in nation building was discarded after the September 11th attacks, a change in policy widely viewed as justifiable among his supporters. Franklin Roosevelt's 1940 pledge to keep the United States out of World War II was similarly abandoned after the Pearl Harbor attack with no negative results politically. George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2001. ... The armed forces of the United States of America consist of the United States Army United States Navy United States Air Force United States Marine Corps United States Coast Guard Note: The United States Coast Guard has both military and law enforcement functions. ... Nation-building refers to the process of constructing or structuring a nation using the power of the state, especially a foreign one. ... The World Trade Center on fire The September 11, 2001 attacks were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001. ... Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882–April 12, 1945), 32nd President of the United States, the longest-serving holder of the office and the only man to be elected President more than twice, was one of the central figures of 20th century history. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Attack on Pearl Harbor Conflict World War II, Pacific War Date December 7, 1941 Place Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Result Japanese victory On the morning of December 7, 1941, planes and midget submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy commanded by Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, carried out a surprise assault on the...

It has been argued that governments in general should not be elected for what they promise, but rather for their ability to deal with the unexpected. Factors such as competence, honesty, ideology, and experience are in many ways a better method of judging a party or politician than their promises that may or may not be kept. This is reflected in actual elections where a politician's character, the party that they belong to, and factors like scandals have a far greater impact on how people vote than specific election promises.

Election promises differ in different government systems. In the Westminster System where almost all power resides in the office of the Prime Minister voters know where to ascribe blame for broken promises. In presidential systems such as that in the United States where power is more diffuse and ultimate responsibility harder to pin down, it is harder for an electorate to punish politicians for broken promises. For instance in the United States a presidential candidate can freely make promises of an impractically large tax cut in the firm confidence that the Senate will reduce it to a manageable level. The Houses of Parliament in London The Westminster system is a democratic, parliamentary system of government modeled after that of the United Kingdom system, as used in the Palace of Westminster, the location of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... A prime minister is the most senior minister of a cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. ... Seal of the U.S. Senate Federal courts Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures State Courts Counties, Cities, and Towns Other countries Politics Portal      Senate composition following 2006 elections The United States Senate is...

The constant stream of broken promises has annoyed many voters and politicians have responded with techniques to make their promises more believable. This includes making far more specific promises with numbers attached. The 1993 Canadian Liberal Red Book was an example of this. Also popular is setting a more specific time for when promises will be implemented, with politicians listing what they will do in their first week or first hundred days in office. The Red Book, officially titled Creating Opportunity: The Liberal Plan for Canada was the platform of the Liberal Party of Canada in the 1993 Canadian election. ...

When promises are to be broken, all politicians know it is best to do so at the start of a term. Thus the first budget is the one most likely to see unexpected tax hikes, or slashed spending. The hope is that by the time the next election occurs in three or four years time the anger of the electorate will have faded.

Similarly politicians often save popular, but relatively unimportant promises for the end of their term to be implemented just before they are up for reelection.

Case study: Richard Nixon's Election promises

In the 1968 Presidential campaign, Richard Nixon stated that "new leadership will end the war" in Vietnam. He never used the phrase "secret plan", which originated with a reporter looking for a lead to a story summarizing the Republican candidate's (hazy) promise to end the war without losing. When pressed for details, Nixon retreated to the position that to tip his hand would interfere with the negotiations that had begun in Paris. Nixon never disavowed the term.^[1] In his own memoirs, Nixon stated he never claimed to have such a plan. ^[2][3] Nevertheless, Nixon's critics have continued to accuse him of campaigning on a "secret plan" to end the war. Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ...

According to one historian: "...it became obvious in 1969 that Nixon's "secret plan" to end the war was a campaign gimmick..."^[4]

Another historian wrote: "Nixon never had a plan to end the war, but he did have a general strategy--to increase pressure on the communists [and] issue them a November 1, 1969 deadline to be conciliatory or else...The North Vietnamese did not respond to Nixon's ultimatum...and his aides began planning Operation Duck Hook." ^[5] Duck Hook (code-named Pruning Knife by the military) was the White House code-name of an operation President Richard Nixon had threatened to unleash against North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, if North Vietnam did not yield to Washingtons terms at the Paris peace negotiations. ...

Nixon told Michigan Republican congressman Donald Riegle that the war would be over within six months of his assumption of office.

As this six month deadline approached, in May 1969, Henry Kissinger asked a group of Quakers to give the administration six more months. "Give us six months, and if we haven't ended the war by then, you can come back and tear down the White House fence."^[6] Henry Alfred Kissinger (born Heinz Alfred Kissinger on May 27, 1923 in Fürth) is a German-born American diplomat, and 1973 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. ...

The election promises of the Nixon administration had positive results for the White House. Many potential peace activists were not ready to march on the Pentagon...until Nixon was given a fair chance. After all, troops were being withdrawn, the bombing had stopped, and diplomats were talking in Paris.^[7] In addition, as the White House gradually pulled troops from Vietnam, the media shifted from the destruction of Vietnam--even while the U.S. air war and coordinated ground assaults in Southeast Asia persisted at a very high rate of killing. ^[8]

The executive producer of the ABC evening news, Av Westin, wrote a memo in March 1969 that stated:

"I have asked our Vietnam staff to alter the focus of their coverage from combat pieces to interpretive ones, pegged to the eventual pull-out of the American forces. This point should be stressed for all hands."

And Westin telexed the ABC network's Saigon bureau:

"I think the time has come to shift some of our focus from the battlefield, or more specifically American military involvement with the enemy, to themes and stories under the general heading 'We Are on Our Way Out of Vietnam.'"^[9]

American combat deaths for the first half of 1969 increased rather than decreased during the time in which the plan was allegedly being implemented.^[10]

In 1972 Nixon also promised that "peace is at hand".^[11] On January 27, 1973, at the beginning of Nixon's second term, representatives of the US, North Vietnam, South Vietnam and the Viet Cong signed the Paris Peace Accords, which formally ended US involvement in the war. The Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1973 by the governments of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV or North Vietnam), the Republic of Vietnam (RVN or South Vietnam), and the United States, as well as the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) that represented indigenous South Vietnamese revolutionaries. ...

The Nixon Administration six month's promise is similar to the Philippine-American War 1900 promise of Republicans who pledged that the fighting in the Philippines would end within sixty days of McKinley's re-election.^[12] Combatants United States Philippines Commanders William McKinley Theodore Roosevelt Emilio Aguinaldo Strength 126,000 soldiers 80,000 soldiers Casualties 4,324 U.S. soldiers dead, 3,000 wounded 2,000 killed, dead, or wounded suffered by the Philippine Constabulary 16,000 soldiers killed est. ...

List of alleged broken promises

• United States presidential election, 1900 - Republican promises to end the Philippine-American War quickly
• The British Liberal Party's pledge to cut military spending, before embarking on the Dreadnought arms race with Germany
• Woodrow Wilson's promise to keep the United States out of World War I
• Herbert Hoover's 1928 pledge to end poverty
• Franklin Roosevelt's 1932 pledge to maintain balanced budgets and to decrease government spending by 25%
• Franklin Roosevelt's 1940 promise to keep the US out of World War II
• The British Labour Party's 1945 pledge to set up a new ministry of housing
• Lyndon B. Johnson's 1964 promise to win the "war on poverty"
• Richard Nixon's 1968 promise to quickly resolve the Vietnam War
• In the 1974 Canadian election, the Liberals derided the Tory plan to implement wage and price controls only to bring them in soon after being elected
• George H.W. Bush's 1988 "Read my lips: No new taxes" pledge
• Bill Clinton's 1992 promise of a middle class tax cut.
• The Liberal Party of Canada's 1993 election pledge to scrap the Goods and Services Tax
• Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke in 1987 "by 1990 no Australian child will be living in poverty"
• In 1994, upon entering Italian politics, media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi promised he would sell his assets in Fininvest (later Mediaset), because of the conflict of interest it would have generated, a promise he repeated a number of times in later years, but after 12 years and having served three terms as prime minister, he still retains ownership of his company that controls virtually all the Italian private TV stations and a large number of magazines and publishing houses, which have extensively been used in favour of his political party
• Australian Prime Minister John Howard in 1995 that the GST would "never ever" be part of Liberal policy (the tax package was put to the Australian people at the 1998 election that re-elected Howard)
• In Ireland, Fianna Fails 2002 election promise to "permanently end all hospital waiting lists" by 2004, and to "create a world class health service" through reform and expanding healthcare coverage with "200,000 extra medical cards". Those with medical cards dropped by over 100,000 and waiting lists continue to be a major issue.

Cookies are good Presidential electoral votes by state. ... Combatants United States Philippines Commanders William McKinley Theodore Roosevelt Emilio Aguinaldo Strength 126,000 soldiers 80,000 soldiers Casualties 4,324 U.S. soldiers dead, 3,000 wounded 2,000 killed, dead, or wounded suffered by the Philippine Constabulary 16,000 soldiers killed est. ... This article is about the historic Liberal Party. ... The sixth HMS Dreadnought of the Royal Navy was a revolutionary battleship which entered service in 1906. ... The term arms race in its original usage describes a competition between two or more parties for military supremacy. ... Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924), was the 28th President of the United States. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... Herbert Clark Hoover, (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964), the 31st President of the United States (1929–1933), was a world-famous mining engineer and humanitarian administrator. ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882–April 12, 1945), 32nd President of the United States, the longest-serving holder of the office and the only man to be elected President more than twice, was one of the central figures of 20th century history. ... Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882–April 12, 1945), 32nd President of the United States, the longest-serving holder of the office and the only man to be elected President more than twice, was one of the central figures of 20th century history. ... The Labour Party is a centre-left or social democratic political party in Britain (see British politics), and one of the United Kingdoms three main political parties. ... “LBJ” redirects here. ... Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000... The House of Commons after the 1974 election The Canadian federal election of 1974 was held on July 8, 1974 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons. ... In economics, incomes policies are wage and price controls used to fight inflation. ... Order: 41st President Vice President: Dan Quayle Term of office: January 20, 1989 – January 20, 1993 Preceded by: Ronald Reagan Succeeded by: Bill Clinton Date of birth: June 12, 1924 Place of birth: Milton, Massachusetts First Lady: Barbara Pierce Bush Political party: Republican George Herbert Walker Bush, KBE (born... Bush delivering the famous line at the 1988 convention Read my lips: No new taxes was a famous pledge made by Republican Presidential candidate George H.W. Bush at the 1988 Republican convention in his acceptance speech on August 18. ... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ... The Liberal Party of Canada (French: ), colloquially known as the Grits (originally Clear Grits), is a Canadian federal political party. ... Popular vote map with bar graphs showing seat totals in the provinces and territories. ... The Canadian Goods and Services Tax (GST) (Taxe sur les produits et services, TPS) is a multi-level value-added tax introduced in Canada on January 1, 1991, by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and finance minister Michael Wilson. ... Robert James Lee Bob Hawke AC (born 9 December 1929) is a former Australian trade union leader turned politician who became the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ... Politics of Italy takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Italy is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. ...   (born September 29, 1936) is an Italian politician, entrepreneur, and media proprietor. ... Fininvest is a financial holding company that controls all of Silvio Berlusconis companies, e. ... Mediaset is an Italian commercial television network. ... A conflict of interest is a situation in which someone in a position of trust, such as a lawyer, a politician, or an executive or director of a corporation, has competing professional or personal interests. ... In Italy, the President of the Council of Ministers (Italian: Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri) is the countrys prime minister or head of government, and occupies the fourth-most important state office. ... John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939), Australian politician, is the Prime Minister of Australia. ... The GST (Goods and Services Tax) is a value added tax of 10% on most goods and services sold in Australia. ... This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ...

Notes

1. ^  Parmet, Herbert S. (December, 1989). The Devil We Knew: Americans and the Cold War. Little Brown & Co. ISBN 0-19-509377-1.  p. 116 "Nixon didn't invent the phrase, which originated with a reporter looking for a lead to a story summarizing the Republican candidate's (hazy) promise to end the war without losing. But neither did he disavow the term, and it soon became a part of the campaign. When pressed for details, Nixon retreated to the not indefensible position that to tip his hand would interfere with the negotiations that had begun in Paris."; Parmet, Herbert S. (December, 1989). Richard Nixon and His America. Little Brown & Co. ISBN 0-316-69232-8.  Stated evidence suggests that Nixon never used the term, and the actually came from a question by a voter at a New Hampshire campaign stop.
2. ^  Nixon, Richard. RN: The Memoirs of Richad Nixon.  p. 198
3. ^  Coleman, Fred (1997). The Decline and Fall of Soviet Empire : Forty Years That Shook The World, From Stalin to Yeltsin. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-16816-0.  p. 203
4. ^  Anderson, Terry (1990). "Review of Johnson, Nixon, and the Doves". The American Historical Review 95 (3): 944-945. 
5. ^  Small, Melvin (April, 1988). Johnson, Nixon, and the Doves. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-1288-3.  p. 174; Zaroulis, Nancy and Gerald Sullivan (1984). Who Spoke Up? American Protest Against the War in Vietnam, 1963-1975. Doubleday. ISBN 0-03-005603-9.  p. 217
6. ^  Small p. 162
7. ^  Small p. 179
8. ^  Strauss, Robert S. (Summer, 1984). "What's Right with U. S. Campaigns". Foreign Policy 55: 15. 
9. ^  See U.S. presidential election, 1900 Misleading Philippine War claims by the Republicans
10. ^  Small, p. 166; Riegle, Don (1972). O Congress. Doubleday.  p. 20; Kalb, Marvin and Bernard (1974). Kissinger. Hutchison. ISBN.  p. 120; Hersh, Seymour M. (1983). The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House. Summit Books. ISBN 0-671-44760-2.  p. 119
11. ^  Solomon, Norman (December 22, 2005). "A New Phase of Bright Spinning Lies About Iraq". CommonDreams.org.