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Voters commonly complain that politicians promise one thing before the election and then turn around and forget about their promise right after the election. It is possible for voters to avoid voting-in a politician who breaks his promises, but there's no guarantee that the next guy won't do the same.

Are there countries where politicians have to abide by what they've promised during the campaign? Or at least countries which attempted to implement a similar system?

JonathanReez
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    I highly doubt that, because it would hinder elected politicians from reacting to recent events. For example, quite a lot of pro-nuclear-energy politicians did a 180° turn the day Fukushima Daiichi had a meltdown. With a "thou shalt not break campaign promises" law, they would not have been able to do that, despite public support for doing so. – Philipp May 03 '17 at 09:52
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    In some cases, a recall election could be used for this purpose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recall_election – user5751924 May 03 '17 at 09:56
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    Also, opposition parties sometimes find that, when they get into government, some of their policies are simply impossible due to cost or resource limitations. – Steve Melnikoff May 03 '17 at 09:57
  • @Philipp in that case politicians can announce a snap election and campaign on a different set of promises, or just resign (see: David Cameron and Brexit) – JonathanReez May 03 '17 at 11:19
  • @SteveMelnikoff if they knew they must abide by their promises, they'd think more carefully before promising or would be forced to immediately resign – JonathanReez May 03 '17 at 11:20
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    @user5751924 and JonathanReez: Most politicians would not risk losing their post through a premature election just because they need to revise one (of their likely dozens of) campaign promises. If they would be forced to do so when they want to break an election promise, they would likely abide by their promise, even when it makes no sense anymore to do so... or just make promises which are so vague that they can't be held accountable. – Philipp May 03 '17 at 11:24
  • @Philipp then at least people could vote for people with non-vague promises, since they would know they're telling the truth – JonathanReez May 03 '17 at 11:29

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