Post-Communist Mandates

The fulfillment of electoral mandates is a fundamental link between voters and their representatives. The absence of this link in newly democratizing countries may be a sign of poorly functioning democracies. This paper investigates this relationship in ten new democracies in Eastern Europe. I argue that governments are fulfilling their campaign promises, but they are doing so in a manner different from what has been found in established democracies. When testing my theory across economic reform, I find that the policies governments implement correspond with the dominant division between political parties. Unlike some previous research that finds new democracies do not follow through on their campaign promises, I conclude that governments are fulfilling their mandates.