WHEN PARTIES MATTER: A REVIEW OF THE POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITS OFPARTİSAN İNFLUENCE ON PUBLİC POLİCY MANFRED G. SCHMIDT

GOVERNMENT RESPONSIVENESS AND POLITICAL COMPETITION IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

SARA BINZER HOBOLD and ROBERT KLEMMENSEN

TEVFIK MURAT YILDIRIM

Quick summary of Arguments

Research Design

Operationalization & Evidences

The Critique

Political Contestation Policy Responsiveness

Party Composition of Government Public Policy

The possibilities and limits of partisan influence on public policy in democratic countries

“The hypothesis of partisan influences is an important analytical instrument

for a better understanding of public policy”

‘Parties-do-matter’ view as an empirical theory

(1) Historio-graphic approach (2) The left-right hypothesis (3) The concept of the major party of the

right (4) The right-centre-left trichotomy

An insignificant correlation means: the choice of a particular indicator of the party composition of government can make a very large difference to estimates of partisan influence on public policy.

“none of the critics has so far empirically and theoretically convincingly demonstrated that the hypothesis of partisan influence is invalid”

SOME BASİC RESULTS Leftist parties Unemployment, social

protection

Right parties Inflation

More federalism Less space to manouvre

political contestation is the primary mechanism driving policy responsiveness

Time series analysis with rhetorical responsiveness and effective responsiveness

Three countries: USA, UK and Denmark

Measuring public opinion with survey questions

Measuring government policy promises (speeches)

And modeling responsiveness

St = α + β1Pt – 1 + β2Zt + β3Wt + β4Wt*Pt – 1 + ε,

RESULTS

“This article has argued that political contestation is a key mechanism that encourages governments to respond to the electorate’s wishes”

Rhetorical responsiveness is highest in the Danish system