Credit-claiming: Motives, obstacles, and effects on voters

An important element of political accountability lies in elected governments delivering on their policy promises and realizing policy outcomes in the interest of large parts of the electorate. A government can then hope to get credit for its policy performance. Yet, this is not a guaranteed outcome, even with responsive policy action. An important question is thus under which conditions government's policy actions evoke perceptions of policy responsiveness and positive government evaluations. This chapter argues that answering that question requires a broader perspective on credit-claiming. It provides a heuristic framework that helps to gain a comprehensive understanding of the success factors and barriers regarding credit-claiming. It furthermore employs this framework to structure and map existing evidence regarding crucial mechanisms that determine the outcome of credit-claiming. Based on this stock-taking, the chapter points to blind spots in the literature and important research topics for future studies.