Election campaign means promises. Posters, podiums, party events - politicians are canvassing for votes everywhere. But what happens afterwards? In March, Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate will elect new state parliaments. Before new promises are made, students at Leipzig University have taken a look at what has become of the old ones. To do this, they developed the first coalition tracker at state level in Germany. It is a tool that makes election promises measurable.
Journalism as a tool of democracy
A large proportion of the projects in Baden-Württemberg were implemented. But there are differences. In the area of society and democracy, 74 percent of the goals were fully implemented. In the area of construction and housing, only 40 percent were achieved. The interactive tool is now available on the SWR website. Users can view each project with sources and evaluation or be surprised by a random function. The tracker for Rhineland-Palatinate will follow on 5 March.
Prof. Dr. Markus Beiler, Head of the Master's degree course at Leipzig University, explains the project: "Especially in these times, when the world is full of disinformation, the coalition tracker offers orientation and the opportunity to find out more about political actions. This shows the importance of journalism for our democracy." The project shows how data journalistic methods can make political processes transparent.
Further information at:
https://www.swr.de/regierungscheck
