The broad-appeal strategy and policy representation

Political parties frequently appeal broadly to different groups of voters with diverse preferences. However, the policy implications of this strategy are not yet understood. On the one hand, governments that appeal broadly may overextend their policy program and be unable to deliver on their promises. On the other hand, broad-appealing governments may focus on presenting different groups of voters with policy packages that are deliverable in order not to be punished by them in future elections. This article tests between these possibilities with data on social policy outputs, comparative manifesto data, and four different measures of government broad-appeals. The empirical analysis demonstrates that there is clear correspondence between what governments say they will do and what they actually do, regardless of how broadly they appeal. This suggests that the broad-appeal strategy does not undermine the democratic mandate theory’s vision of how democracy should work.