Politics is always very close to "buying" votes. Pleasing voters is something all of them do. But it it just like you said: just a bone.
These days they don't even need to "buy" votes. They manipulate social media and the press so that "public opinion" is moved by brainwashing and other psychological manipulations. It is all trickery of the less educated and even some of the more educated into believing that their party is the one you SHOULD vote for. It is not always done by pleasing the public, but also by creating fear that if the other party gets in, something bad will happen.