Broken promise accusations are a common but underexplored phenomenon in the Danish political sphere. These accusations can have severe political consequences for the politicians being accused regardless of their defenses – in some cases leading to their resignation. This indicates that the broken promise accusations play a central role in the Danish democracy.

The project investigates broken promise accusations directed at various Danish governments from 1998 up until today and is structured around two research questions:

1. What characterizes the broken promise accusation as a genre, and what is its functions and purposes?
2. How has the genre evolved throughout the years and what does the development indicate about the development of Danish political discourse?

The empirical material consists of editorials, parliamentary speeches and debates, interviews, opinion pieces, and Facebook threads from three different types of rhetors: politicians, citizens, and the media. The project is interdisciplinary and combines theory from philosophy, social science, and rhetoric.

The research project is led by PhD student Lærke Lundh and is situated at the Center for Rhetoric.