Political equality is a basic prerequisite and central principle of democracy. However, existing research findings give rise to doubts about the actual realization of this ideal and point to "unequal responsiveness" of political actors. This project examines, comparatively for Germany and France, political (in)equality at different levels of the political decision-making process. The focus is on the formulation and fulfillment of electoral promises with regard to the political representation of social groups.

The project looks at the supply and demand side of political competition. On the supply side, we argue that for social groups with high mobilization resources and a positive social image, election promises are disproportionately often formulated and that promises formulated for these groups in the election campaign are also more often implemented after the election. We also assume that a group's social image plays a greater role in the election campaign (pledge making) and that mobilization resources play a greater role in the implementation of promises in policies (pledge fulfillment). On the demand side, we argue that group-based heuristics and the ambiguity of a pledge influence citizen:s perception and evaluation of electoral promises.

UNEQUALMAND will make an important contribution to research on unequal responsiveness, public policy, party competition, and electoral promises by examining the following questions using a mixed-methods research design:

• For which groups are election promises made and for whom are they implemented? What role do the mobilization resources and the social image of these groups play here?
• How and under what conditions do citizens react to group-specific election promises (prospectively) and their fulfillment (retrospectively)?

UNEQUALMAND relies on a mixed-methods research design that allows us to combine hypothesis-testing with more inductive approaches that are of key relevance for a new research agenda. To investigate which social groups are targeted by parties (D) and candidates (F) groups in election campaigns and for which groups, election promises are implemented, we first collect (WP1) quantitative data on promises in election programs and their implementation status (period: 1995/98 - 2021/22). This WP (workpackage) also includes the identification and coding of groups implicitly or explicitly addressed in election promises (inductive approach) as well as the coding of a variety of other characteristics of the promises. WP2 will also collect data on the two, in the context of this project, central group characteristics for the period 1995/98-2021/22: Mobilization resources (voter turnout, political power) and social image (deservingness perceptions) of the groups. The data collected in WP1 and WP2 are used to inductively create a typology of social groups and their characteristics (mobilization resources, societal image) and also allow us to test our hypotheses. Furthermore, they are the basis for the creation (WP3) of two surveys (incl. survey experiments) to be conducted in France in spring 2023 (one year after the presidential election) and in Germany in fall 2023 (mid-term of the legislative period), which will analyze the perception and evaluation of election promises by voters:inside. Qualitative process analyses of selected cases of (non-)fulfilled group-specific promises (WP4) will also allow for the uncovering of causal mechanisms that should contribute to the explanation of the interplay between groups, promises and their fulfillment and allow for the inductive generation of new hypotheses.

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