Election Pledge Rhetoric: Selling Policy with Words

Authors

  • Elina Lindgren Department of Political Science at University of Gothenburg
  • Elin Naurin Department of Political Science at University of Gothenburg

Keywords:

persuasive words, political rhetoric across ideological divides, election pledges, political communication, linguistic semantic

Abstract

This article investigates the possibilities that political parties have to sell specific policies to a broad electorate by use of persuasive words in election pledges. Prior research has shown that parties can increase their electoral support by targeting different groups of voters with different policies or by moderating policy platforms to the center. We investigate whether voters’ appreciation of specific policy pledges increases when rhetoric is used to appeal broadly. Inspired by literature on philosophy of language and linguistic semantics, we designed a survey experiment in which 1,960 Swedish citizens evaluated election pledges. We randomized whether the policy was described using universal persuasive words. Results showed that universal persuasive words increase the appreciation of specific policy pledges, particularly among individuals oriented close to and at the center of the ideological left–right scale (the median voters). The effects decrease with ideological (left and right) extremity. In times when center voters become increasingly important for election outcomes, indications that they are susceptible to universal, but left–right ideology-neutral, rhetoric are interesting both for parties and scholars of the same.

Author Biographies

Elina Lindgren, Department of Political Science at University of Gothenburg

PhD Candidate in Political Science, Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Box 711, SE 40530, Gothenburg, Sweden, Telephone work: +46 31 786 2984, Mobile phone: +46 73 097 2212, Fax work: +46 31 786 1895, Email: elina.lindgren@gu.se Elina Lindgren is a PhD candidate at the Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg. Her PhD project focuses on effects of election pledge rhetoric on voters pre- and post-election evaluation of policies.AcknowledgmentsThe authors are grateful to the Laboratory of Opinion Research (LORE), University of Gothenburg. This is one of the projects financed by LORE through their open application process. The manuscript was presented in an earlier version at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco, 3-6 September 2015. Division 36: Elections and voting behavior. Panel: Voters and Mandates: Evaluating Specific Accountability Processes.

Elin Naurin, Department of Political Science at University of Gothenburg

Elin NaurinAssociate Professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Box 711, SE 40530, Gothenburg, Sweden, Telephone work: +46 31 786 1243, Email: elin.naurin@pol.gu.seElin Naurin is Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg. She is one of three initiators and coordinators of the Comparative Party Pledge Group, performing comparative research on party pledge fulfillment. She is the author of several pieces on election pledges, for example the book Election Promises, Party Behavior and Voter Perceptions (Palgrave Macmillan).

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Published

2017-05-12

Issue

Vol. 11 (2017)

Section

Articles

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