A PROMISE IS A PROMISE

Politics and the art of compromise

Political compromises are essential to any form of government, but they are particularly central in coalitions, where different parties have to balance each others’ priorities. While a willingness to compromise was once seen as a welcome sign of political maturity, many voters now see it as selling out for the sake of power, an issue Dr Mariken van der Velden is exploring in her research.

Many European countries have

a long history of being governed by coalitions, which inevitably entails political compromise between the partners, as they seek to balance each other’s legislative priorities within a single government. However, while coalitions are common across Europe, voters are increasingly unwilling to accept the need for compromise, and tend to punish those parties who are seen as having not lived up to their promises while in government. “In the Netherlands for example we never have a single-party government. Yet at the same time people are upset that politicians compromise,” says Dr Mariken van der Velden, Associate Professor of Political Communication at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In her research, Dr van der Velden is investigating whether this hostility to compromise is related to the language politicians use during campaigns. “Campaigning language is affirmative, and that may make people less likely to accept compromise,” she suggests.

Political campaigning

The focus in this research is on voters and politicians in Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, countries with different political traditions. While Germany and the Netherlands have a long history of multi-

party government, Spain only recently elected its first coalition government this century. “Spain doesn’t have a custom of coalition governments, but it is currently governed by one,” says Dr van der Velden. One aim in the project is to probe the different kinds of promises that politicians make during a campaign as they seek the support of voters. “My work builds upon a group that looks at the number of pledges politicians make. They consider pledges as being quite specific ideas about policy, such as changing the speed limit on the highway,” continues Dr van der Velden.

“This is a bit problematic in terms of political compromise, as politicians are very aware of when they have to be highly specific with their language and when they can be a bit vaguer. I’m looking at questions like, where do they put their emphasis in terms of rhetoric during the campaign?”

I have two VR agents, acting as politicians,

that propose two different ways of celebrating that anniversary in a mock town-hall debate. The question is whether the way that this mock town-hall debate unfolds is conducive to

people accepting compromises or not.

This may be indicative of their particular priorities, as well as the areas in which they might be willing to compromise should they enter government. In both Spain and the Netherlands, political parties campaign on the basis of their plans for government, rather than who they may be willing to form a coalition with after the election. “In Spain there has traditionally been a left-wing bloc and a right-wing bloc, although we will have to see how this plays out in future. In the Netherlands we never have a single-party government, but up until the last election in 2021, leaders were not willing to engage with the topic of a potential coalition, because they feel that it’s something that people decide after an election,” says Dr van der Velden. The differing levels of coalition experience in these three countries was one of the major reasons Dr van der Velden chose to focus on them in her research. “I’m working with data from a country with no coalition experience at the national level (Spain) up to this point, as well as two countries with coalition experience (Netherlands and Germany),” she outlines.

As part of her research, Dr van der Velden is using virtual reality (VR) games to investigate the effect of the language politicians use on voters’ attitude towards political compromises. In this game, VR agents debate how to mark the 750th anniversary of Amsterdam’s founding in 2025. “I have two VR agents, acting as politicians, that propose two different ways of celebrating that anniversary in a mock town-hall debate. The question is whether the way that this mock townhall debate unfolds is conducive to people accepting compromises or not,” explains Dr van der Velden. Voters may feel particularly strongly on some issues and may be unwilling to accept any compromises, another topic Dr van der Velden is exploring in the project. “We did an experiment in Germany just after the election, when coalition talks were ongoing. We asked; should there be a speed limit on the highways? This is a highly symbolic issue in Germany,” she says. “We combined this with research into their attitude towards tax, which is a bit of a generic, left-right divide.”

Researchers have found that voters don’t approve of parties compromising their principles for the sake of being in government, regardless of the issue. This might mean it takes longer to form a government after an election, yet evidence suggests voters still prefer this to messy political compromises. “People want parties to take a clear stand on the issues that matter to them,” says Dr van der Velden. In many European countries there are now a wider range of political parties to

A PROMISE IS A PROMISE!

A Promise is a Promise! A Study of the Electoral Ramifications of Political Compromises Project Objectives

Nowadays, political compromises seem to be extremely unpopular. This poses a problem for politicians’ ability to form stable coalitions to govern. My project studies the ramifications of compromises for politicians’ communication and voter behaviour utilising virtual reality techniques, experiments and computational textual approaches.

Project Funding

This project is funded by Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek [VI.Veni.191R.006]

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Mariken van der Velden, PhD Associate Professor of Political Communication Department of Communication Science | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam T: +31 639 515307 E: m.a.c.g.vander.velden@vu.nl W: http://www.marikenvandervelden.com/ W: https://research.vu.nl/en/persons/ mariken-van-der-velden

Mariken van der Velden, PhD

Mariken van der Velden, PhD is an Associate Professor of Political Communication in the Department of Communication Science at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her research is motivated by key societal challenges that face democracies today, such as the crisis of representative democracy and increasing political fragmentation. To fund her research, Mariken has received many prestigious grants from national and European funding agents represent these different viewpoints, yet this fragmentation only leads to a greater need for compromise if a stable government is to be formed. “More parties means that parliament is divided into smaller representative groups. That means no single party is likely to gain a majority, and that more parties will be involved in coalitions than before,” points out Dr van der Velden. “In Germany two-party coalitions are not common any more, there may be three parties involved, while here in the Netherlands we sometimes have four parties in a coalition.”

This will inevitably result in more compromises between partners, which will anger some people who see it as politicians failing to live up to their promises, but involvement in the political process and greater familiarity with it may lead to a change in viewpoint. This is a topic Dr van der Velden is investigating in the project. “Does participating in the political process make people more accepting of the need for compromise?” she asks. Results from the VR games so far suggest that greater awareness of the political process has an impact in these terms. “The people who participated in this game said that they had more of an understanding of the complexity of the political process, and therefore are more aware that not everything can go their way,” explains Dr van der Velden. “So far we’ve done this research with students to test the equipment. Later on we will do this research with a random sample of the population, which we expect will also include some people who are more distrustful of the political process.” The wider backdrop to this research is an increasingly fragmented political environment in Spain, the Netherlands and Germany, with more and more parties gaining representation in parliament. This makes coalitions more likely, yet at the same time many populists criticise those politicians who are willing to compromise, undermining trust in the system as a whole. “People are less accepting of this need for compromise. That poses many challenges in terms of acceptance of the system,” says Dr van der Velden. Effective communication between governments and citizens is central to rebuilding trust, a topic at the heart of Dr van der Velden’s research. “Citizen-driven participation like town-hall debates give governments the opportunity to establish a rapport with the electorate. The question is how should they communicate? What things should they say? What resonates with the public? What does it mean to effectively or persuasively communicate?” she outlines. “These are the types of questions that I’m looking at.”

The VR games are an integral part of this research, and textual methods are also under development to look at how politicians reach compromises and subsequently justify their actions to the public. The plan is to apply these textual and VR methods over the next year or so, while Dr van der Velden is also considering possible further avenues of investigation in future. “For example, if we know that certain citizen-driven decision making is helpful for political trust, or for the perception of the legitimacy of democracy, then how does this work? What are the mechanisms through which this is accepted?” she continues.