WHEN PARTIES MATTER: A REVIEW OF THE
POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITS OF
PARTISAN INFLUENCE ON PUBLIC POLICY

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 BASIC RESULTS

Leftist parties  Unemployment, social
protection

Right parties  Inflation

More federalism  Less space to manouvre


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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