Manifestos are usually taken to be the official statements of intended policy issued by political parties at the beginning of election campaigns. In fact manifesto can have a broader meaning, covering all statements of political intent or even a call for support in a revolutionary situation, as with The Communist Manifesto written by Marx and Engels in 1848. Manifestos vary enormously in length, style and political importance, but virtually every political party in every democratic system issues some equivalent to a manifesto before every election. They can be politically quite irrelevant, neither read by anyone nor influencing elected party members, as with the ‘platforms’ issued by the US political parties. These are lengthy documents negotiated by committee at the nominating conventions for presidential candidates, which often have important symbolic interest to party activists, but are of no consequence whatever. In some systems, notably the Italian system today, and the French Fourth Republic, manifestos were important bargaining tools for coalition building: a party could insist that if they were to join a coalition it must accept a specific policy on the grounds that the policy was in their manifesto. These can even reach the level of a ‘common programme’, as with the arrangement between the French socialists and communists in the late 1970s.
It is usually thought that the breakdown over this common programme delayed the socialists’ electoral victory until 1980.
In the United Kingdom manifestos have become largely standardized since the 1960s, taking the form of small booklets of about 15,000–20,000 words, although recently they have become increasingly glossily produced, and created by a party committee. In the past the Conservative Party manifesto was often just the party leader’s personal address to the electorate. In the Labour Party the manifesto has always been vital because it has reflected the conflict in the party over different electoral strategies. The policies carried out by governments have not followed closely the promises made in manifestos, even though manifesto commitments are taken seriously by many party members. In part they represent a way for back-benchers to retain some control over their own government’s behaviour. They also have a constitutional role in the UK. It is widely accepted that the House of Lords (see second chamber) ought not to interfere seriously with government legislation if it stems from a policy that was enshrined in the party’s election manifesto; a manifesto has been submitted to the electorate, whereas the House of Lords is an unelected body.
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