A promise entails quite a lot of trust in the promisee; one must evaluate the situation and make a judgement wether or not to accept the promise, weighing the risks and benefits. Even promise breaking in the broader community is routine, even in very important matters such as marriage. That there were 55,330 divorces granted in Australia in 2001, and the "crude divorce rate" was more than half the "crude marriage rate", and that this is a relatively constant feature of Australian family life shows that people will break one of the most solemn - and doubtless sincerely-meant - promises they will ever make.
For politics, the matter seems different. The public expect that politicians should adhere to much higher standards than ordinary people. Citizens believe, nevertheless, that most political promises are like a salesman's patter - pious words not to be taken at face value. A Bulletin poll taken in April found that only 7% of Australians believed politicians were honest and ethical. John Howard, during the recent federal election promised an injection of funds into health that should have been made during his first term of Government, however then his position was not questioned and he didn’t need to make grand promises. He has had eight years to show whether he really cares about a strong health system, or rather, cares about the health of his electoral chances.
Two promises that have shaped the world today are the Treaty of Versailles where the German Government was forced to sign a treaty and thus ‘promise’ to pay 6600 million pounds compensation to the Allies, forfit its territories and reduce its military force. However this promise was a forced promise and Germany from the start probably had already made up its mind not to pay. A blatent example of using a promise for political and personal gain is seen in the Munich Pact. During the policy of Appeasement before WWII, Hitler was gaining power and expanding his military forces. Britain and France are worried that another war would break out and thus gave Hitler territory in Czechoslovakia in return for his promise of no war. However, this only made Germany stronger and provided her with more power and reason to go to war. In the end, Germany, despite signing the pact attacked Poland bringing about the Second World War.
There is a degree of leiniency dealing with promises, people these days are accustomed that some promises made to them will not be fulfilled. Politicians need to make exaggerated promises to be elected and it is the voter’s job to analyse which candidate is more confident, honest and has made the smarter but less far-fetched promises than his opposition. One must also be smart and think about the situation when accepting promises and not be misled. Promises are the way of life in many institutions; for example a bank with the lending and borrowing of money. A guarantee is a promise. The simple cheque is a promise. Money is a promise. The world would not be able to survive without promises of some kind.
(The effect of promises in society, the consequences of promises, the history of promises and the current use of promises.)
