W HEN 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”

S OME BASIC RESULTS Leftist parties  Unemployment, social protection Right parties  Inflation More federalism  Less space to manouvre

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,

R ESULTS “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