Political platform
formal list of political goals that a political party or individual candidate seeks to enact
A political party platform (North American English), party program, or party manifesto (preferential term in British and often Commonwealth English) is a formal set of principal goals which are supported by a political party or individual candidate, to appeal to the general public, for the ultimate purpose of garnering the general public's support and votes about complicated topics or issues. A component of a political platform is often called a plank – the opinions and viewpoints about an individual topic, as held by a party, person, or organization. The word "plank" depicts a component of an overall political platform, as a metaphorical reference to a basic stage made of boards or planks of wood. The metaphor can return to its literal origin when public speaking or debates are actually held upon a physical platform.
In the United Kingdom and certain other countries, the party platform is referred to as the party's "manifesto" or political programme. The manifesto contains election pledges, or election promises. Across the Western world, political parties in power are highly likely to fulfill their election promises, though some goals may fail to be achivied due constitutional checks and balances, gridlock, crisis events, or changes in the economic and global reality during a politician's or political party's term in office.
Origins
The first known use of the word platform was in 1535. The word platform comes from Middle French plate-forme, literally meaning "flat form". The political meaning of the word to reflect "statement of party politics" is from 1803, probably originally an image of a literal platform on which politicians gather, stand, and make their appeals.
The public source identifies “Political platform” as formal list of political goals that a political party or individual candidate seeks to enact. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Political, platform and formal.
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This entry incorporates text from “Political platform” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.