INTRODUCTION

The cautionary but moderately encouraging conclusions from Britain and Canada are also likely to hold for other countries – certainly for those (like Australia and New Zealand) with similar governmental and party arrangements – but probably for others too.

The country studies reported in Chapters 3–17 all assess the place of the manifesto or its programmatic equivalent in national political processes. The qualitative evidence produced there suggests (even within the context of coalition negotiations) that they form genuine statements of preference rather than mere bargaining counters. The elaborate negotiations of joint programmes before an election, as in Ireland and France in 1973, is an indication of the importance accorded them by parties as well as by the electorate.

These bits of evidence require more systematic investigation to tie them conclusively together. Even so, they allow us to proceed to our ‘internal’ analysis with further reassurance that the texts have an effect on the external world.

Of course election programmes are interesting not only for their bearing on government action, but also for their contribution to the electoral success of the party, to the formation of like-minded coalitions, and to the study of policy-spaces constraining the choices rational actors will make. All these lines of investigation are followed up below and in the parallel analyses currently underway.

THE COMPARATIVE FRAMEWORK

Regardless of the particular interest one has, campaign appeals are studied to best advantage on a comparative rather than on a single-country or single-party basis.