On Party Platforms, Mandates, and Government Spending

This study is a reanalysis of Ian Budge and Richard Hofferbert's 1990 APSR article. The authors successfully replicate the original analysis, critique the interpretation of the causal effects, estimate a model that loosens a key assumption, and find that party platforms have small or nonexistent effects on government spending. The replication dataset includes Budge and Hofferbert's data that measure the relative frequency of many different issue areas mentioned in each party platform, as well as the spending figures in corresponding areas of the federal budget. Also included are programs to replicate Table 1 and Figure 1 in the article.