ABSTRACT. Are post-communist governments responsive to their citizens’ policy preferences? In other words, do elected officials keep their campaign promises once they enter the office? This paper examines the policy behavior of post-communist governments in Eastern Europe and the former USSR focusing on the fulfillment of campaign promises of incumbent governments as an indicator of policy responsiveness. Using an original dataset of thirteen post-communist democracies, this paper examines the promises-to-policy congruence of incumbent governments. Contrary to our initial doubt about the efficacy of responsiveness, we find empirical evidence of responsiveness to the citizens’ policy preferences. pp. 7–27
JEL codes: D72; I38
Keywords: policy responsiveness; post-communist governments; campaign promise
How to cite: Ryu, Soon-Rhee, and Dinissa S. Duvanova (2014), “Policy Responsiveness in Post-Communist Democracies: A Study of Promise-to-Policy Congruence,” Journal of Self-Governance and Management Economics 2(3): 7–27.