Effects Of Unfulfilled Promises In Democracy

Democracy is very important for freedom of life and the collective growth of a nation. Claims promoting the positive benefits of democracy on voter turnout and engagement have appeared periodically since the wave of progressive era reforms during the early 20th century leading to establishment of state ballot initiative process.     

A reason why Politicians get away with unfulfilled promises is that there are no checks and balances made before or during their tenure in office. This raises further questions - Who is a politician accountable to when making promises? What happens when other institutions do not align with the political promise? The answers are multifaceted, but with sensitive topics like quotas, which carry the potential to cause riots, destruction of property and loss of lives, a politician's actions could have consequences that outlive their incumbency.         

At the pre-election stage, Political parties are using a variety of devices to prove themselves more trustworthy and credible than the others. However, broken political promises and a consequent reduction can be observed. 

While the loss of trust can lead to anti-incumbency, it also creates intangible cleavages in the institution of democracy. Following are two ways in which unchecked political promises undermine public trust and weaken democracy. 

First, political promises often fail to weigh the realities of implementation. 

Second, promises often fail to take into account the broader institutional/ historical backdrops in which legislations were established. Losing sight of this larger picture and misemploying legal instruments for short-term political gains put the promise at risk and is unconstructive in gaining the trust of the people. 

Such issues and their effect on democratic structure of India are not limited to quotas and reservations. Such unconstrained promises seem to be a facet of  most governments that have come to power. There is a long list of other promises, from setting up courts to fighting hoarding to black marketing, from ill-considered job numbers to reforming the Agricultural Produces Marketing that haven't been met.

Thus, even though redesigning political promises is a big (perhaps idealistic ) task, politician's current promises translate into undetectable high stakes and serious long-term effects. It is well said by a prominent economist that " We all know what to do, we just don't know how to get re-elected after we have done it". However, keeping the short-term goals of re-election aside, an over-promise, the under- deliver strategy doesn't bode well in building trust for edifice of Democracy.   

It is important to remember also that many US presidents have a long history of making daring promises to win an election but not always following through. A view on the following may be noted as well -

1. Woodrow Wilson won re-election in 1916 with the slogan "He kept us out of war" only to enter World War 1 a year later.

2. Lyndon B. Johnson promised in 1964.  "We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10 thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves". During his presidency, the U.S entered the Vietnam war and Johnson did not seek re-election.

3. Richard Nixon claimed in 1968 to "have a secret plan to end war" and promised to find a way to "peace with honor" in Vietnam, but American troops were not withdrawn till 1973- a little more than a year before Nixon resigned.

4. Gerald Ford was the only president to never be elected, so he never made any campaign promises to keep or break. He gets a pass.

5. Jimmy Carter campaigned on solving the energy crisis but his speeches about conservation and attempts to add solar panels to the roof of White House weren't good enough. He was unable to get support for gas tax, and the energy problem only worsened during his presidency.

6. Ronald Reagan promised to make a constitutional amendment allowing school prayer during his campaign. Though he proposed the amendment in 1982, it never went anywhere. 

7.  George H.W.Bush famously promised in 1988 "Read my lips. No new taxes" only to sign a bill raising taxes during his first and only term. 

8. Bill Clinton campaigned on renovation of healthcare system before he took office in 1993. Though he attempted healthcare reform - "Hillarycare" - it ended in failure.   

9. George W. Bush promised to "change the tone" in D.C. , privatize social security and reduce Govt. spending - none of which he succeeded with. 

10. Barack Obama - out of 533 promises, 48% of them he managed to keep while 24% of them he broke. 

So, interest in politics declines as election promises go unfulfilled. 

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