Party platform

For other uses, seeManifesto.

A politicalparty platform(American English),party program,orparty manifesto(preferential term in British and often Commonwealth English) is a formal set of principal goals which are supported by apolitical partyor individualcandidate,to appeal to the general public, for the ultimate purpose of garnering the general public's support and votes about complicated topics or issues. A component of a political platform is often called aplank– the opinions and viewpoints about an individual topic, as held by a party, person, or organization. The word "plank" depicts a component of an overall political platform, as a metaphorical reference to a basicstagemade of boards orplanks of wood.The metaphor can return to its literal origin whenpublic speakingordebatesare actually held upon a physical platform.

In the United Kingdom and certain other countries, the party platform is referred to as the party's "manifesto"or political programme. The manifesto contains election pledges, or election promises. Across theWestern world,political parties in power are highly likely to fulfill their election promises, research has found.

Origins

The first known use of the wordplatformwas in 1535. The wordplatformcomes fromMiddle Frenchplate-forme,literally meaning "flat form".The political meaning of the word to reflect "statement of party politics" is from 1803, probably originally an image of a literal platform on which politicians gather, stand, and make their appeals.

Fulfilling platforms

Party manifesto - Hungary, 2024

A 2017 study in theAmerican Journal of Political Sciencethat analyzed 12 countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States) found that political parties in government fulfill theirelection promisesto voters to a considerable extent.The study determined that:

Parties that hold executive office after elections generally fulfill substantial percentages, sometimes very high percentages, of their election pledges, whereas parties that do not hold executive office generally find that lower percentages of their pledges are fulfilled. The fulfillment of pledges by governing executive parties varies across governments in ways that reflect power-sharing arrangements. The main power-sharing arrangement that impacts pledge fulfillment distinguishes between single-party governments and coalitions, not between governments with and without legislative majorities. We found the highest percentages of pledge fulfillment for governing parties in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, and Canada, most of which governed in single-party executives. We found lower percentages for governing parties in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Bulgaria, Ireland, and Italy, most of which governed in coalitions. Pledge fulfillment by U.S. presidential parties lies at the higher end of coalition governments, which suggests that U.S. presidents are more constrained than governing parties in single-party parliamentary systems, but less constrained than most governing parties in multiparty coalitions.

Other research on the United States suggests thatDemocratic PartyandRepublican Partycongresspeoplevoted in line with their respective party platforms 74 per cent and 89 per cent of the time, respectively.

Famous political platforms

• The Ninety-Five ThesesofMartin Lutherin 1517, opposed practices of theCatholic Churchat that time (both a religion and a political territory), and led to the establishment ofProtestantism
• Thomas Paine's pamphletCommon Sense(1776) advocatedfreedom from the ruleofGreat Britainfor theAmerican Colonistsand proposed a constitution for the newUnited States
• The Federalistunder "Publius", the collectivepseudonymofAlexander Hamilton,James Madison,andJohn Jay
• Tamworth Manifestoin 1834, a political manifesto issued bySir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet,in a run-up to theBritish general election of 1835that laid down the principles upon which the modernConservative Partywas founded from the oldTory party.
• Friedrich EngelsandKarl Marx's 1848Communist Manifesto,called for the abolition ofprivate propertyand applied ascientific understandingto the development of society throughsocialisminto a society without money-usage, social classes, or state coercion, which would be called "communism"
• The 1875Gotha Programof the recently unitedSocial Democratic Party of Germany,subject to a famouscritique by Karl Marx
• Bolshevismof theRussian Social Democratic Labour Party(1916)
• Franklin Roosevelt's1932New Deal
• The 1948United States Democratic Party's platform includingcivil rights
• John F. Kennedy's 1960New Frontier
• Lyndon Baines Johnson'sGreat Society,1964
• The 1993Liberal Party of CanadaRed Book
• The 1994RepublicancongressionalContract with America
• Mike Harris's 1995Common Sense Revolution
• 100-Hour Planof theUnited States Democratic Partyin 2006
• Clause IV Socialism,a focus of debate in theUK Labour Party
• TheHeritage Foundation2024Project 2025

Example of a printed platform inpamphletform: the 1912 U.S.Progressive Partyplatform

See also

• List of democracy and elections-related topics
• List of Conservative Party (UK) general election manifestos
• List of Labour Party (UK) general election manifestos
• List of Liberal Party and Liberal Democrats (UK) general election manifestos
• Mandate (politics)
• Party line (politics)
• Stump speech (politics)

External links

• Platforms of U.S. political parties, 1840-presentfrom the American Presidency Project at theUniversity of California, Santa Barbara
• [1]National Party Platforms of the United States, Presidential Candidates, Electoral and Popular Votes

1896

• [2]The Tribune Almanac and Political Register 1895
• Electronic Manifestos CanadaManifestos of Canada's major political parties since 1949
• The Tribune Almanac and Political Register 1895