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This article explores the issue of electoral promises in twentieth-century Britain—how they were made, how they were understood, and how they evolved across time. It does so through a study of general election manifestos (issued by political parties) and election addresses (issued on behalf of individual candidates). The premise of the article is that exploring the act of making promises illuminates the development of political communication and democratic representation, and that considering the print culture and circulation history aspects of addresses and manifestos helps us understand the relationship between the process of pledging and actual policy outcomes. The article further argues that the Labour Party was an innovator that helped push changes in the ways in which policies were promoted to the electorate. It posits that the years 1900–97 saw an important but slow and contested shift towards a more programmatic form of politics. This did not always favour policies of state expansion, but it did favour promises of state action.

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