What makes a good minister of a political party? Impact of party- and field-related experience on party pledge fulfilment

Abstract

The article examines the effect of the personal characteristics of ministers on their party and coalition partners' pledge fulfilment. Partisanship and additional party-related experience is expected to help party pledge fulfilment. Previous field-related experience should additionally open up the space for alternative principals. However, in combination of both variables, the partisan motivation shall be the leading mechanism for the behaviour of the minister – and the field-related experience can help partisan ministers to follow party mandate better. The joint dataset of objectively testable pledges in the Czech Republic (2007–2015) supplemented by the information of government ministers is used for the test of hypotheses. The article shows that not only holding the portfolio but also the particular features of ministers, especially those related to the party-related experience, influence their ability to fulfil party promised policy.