mandate

   The authority of the Government to govern according to the promises as set out in its manifesto, as granted by the voters in the previous election.

   Each party enters an election campaign with a statement of its intended programme should it gain office. If it wins the election, the manifesto is expected to form the basis of its actions. It has legitimacy and the Government a moral right to govern and carry out its policies and the electorate can expect that the programme will be implemented. In a broad sense, it is sometimes said that ministers have a ‘doctor’s mandate’, the right to act as they see fit when a particular problem arises, even if it was unmentioned in the manifesto.

   There are problems with the concept of the mandate. It is inaccurate for a winning party to assert that the public has demonstrated support for the entire contents of the manifesto. Voters might favour its broad thrust, preferring it to the others on offer, but they may dislike or be unaware of individual elements of what is often a broad and vague set of proposals. Moreover, in postwar Britain no party has ever won more than 50 per cent of the votes cast. In some cases – the Thatcher and Blair years – the percentage of support has been much lower and has declined in each election contested. Yet they have carried out contentious policies supported by a low percentage of those who voted, let alone of the whole electorate.