A framework for the systematic study of election quality

Elklit, Jørgen; Reynolds, Andrew

doi:10.1080/13510340500069204

Cited by 114 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Some data-creation efforts have begun (Elklit & Reynolds 2005, Hyde & Marinov 2010, Kelley & Kolev 2010, but many more will be needed to approach the questions above. It may be particularly important to gather data that separate conditions before and after elections, so that analysts are not forced to rely on annual data, which conflate pre-and postelection conditions.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even if changes occur, governments may thwart them in the implementation stage. In Lesotho, for example, Jørgen Elklit, who served as an expert there, reports that international actors, led by the Southern African Development Community, helped devise a new electoral system to address the winner-take-all concerns that had plagued previous elections, only to have the main players game the system in the next election (Elklit 2005(Elklit , 2008.…”

Section: Direct International Involvementmentioning

confidence: 99%

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International Influences on Elections in New Multiparty States

Kelley

2012

Annu. Rev. Polit. Sci.

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Practitioners and politicians have long debated the wisdom of pushing countries to hold elections, with some arguing for its necessity and others warning of its futility and even danger. Yet, research on how varying types of international activities affect the conduct and structure of elections still has a long way to go to be able to inform this debate. This article discusses the myriad international forms of engagement with elections and reviews the research on their ability to improve election quality. It also explores the more nefarious international activities, which are even less well understood than the efforts to improve elections. Given the mixed outcomes and findings, much work remains to be done, especially in specifying the conditions under which various effects occur. Such work has both practical and theoretical merits and can shed light on broader scholarly inquiries about the international dimensions of democratization.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Direct International Involvementmentioning

confidence: 99%

International Influences on Elections in New Multiparty States

Kelley

2012

Annu. Rev. Polit. Sci.

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“…Likewise, manipulation of electoral administration also limits voters' freedom to send their incumbent government home if they are unsatisfied with it, thus also affecting the extent to which elections are free. Given the difficulty in separating these two dimensions, more recent conceptualisations of election quality and election integrity have focused rather on an electoral cycle approach, mapping electoral irregularities during the entire electoral cycle, from the period leading up to the election, to election day, to post-election (Elklit andReynolds 2005, Norris 2014). See Van Ham 2014 for a discussion and overview of different conceptualizations of election integrity.…”

Section: The Quality Of Elections In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hence, electoral manipulation can take many forms, ranging from voter and candidate intimidation, to manipulation of the electoral management body, to vote buying, and many more (Lehoucq 2003, Schedler 2002, Elklit and Reynolds 2005.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Elections are complex processes, and irregularities can occur at all the different stages of the electoral cycle: starting from the pre-election legal framework, registration and campaigning, to the actual voting on election day, to post-election vote counting, and the adjudication of results (Elklit andReynolds 2005, Norris 2014). Hence, electoral manipulation can take many forms, ranging from voter and candidate intimidation, to manipulation of the electoral management body, to vote buying, and many more (Lehoucq 2003, Schedler 2002, Elklit and Reynolds 2005.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Vote Buying is a Good Sign: Alternate Tactics of Fraud in Africa 1986-2012

Ham

Lindberg

2015

SSRN Journal

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Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) is a new approach to the conceptualization and measurement of democracy. It is co-hosted by the University of Gothenburg and University of Notre Dame. With a V-Dem Institute at University of Gothenburg that comprises almost ten staff members, and a project team across the world with four Principal Investigators, fifteen Project Managers, 30+ Regional Managers, 170 Country Coordinators, Research Assistants, and 2,500 Country Experts, the V-Dem project is one of the largest-ever social science research-oriented data collection programs.Please address comments and/or queries for information to: AbstractOver 90 percent of the world's states currently select their national leaders through multi-party elections. However, in Africa the quality of elections still varies widely, ranging from elections plagued by violence and fraud to elections that are relatively "free and fair". The literature on election fraud and integrity has identified several factors explaining cross-national variation in overall levels of election integrity. Much less is known about trade offs between different strategies of electoral manipulation and the differences between incumbent and opposition actors' strategies. Existing research suggest that incumbents engage more in vote buying while opposition engage more in election violence. We theorize that choices for specific types of manipulation are driven by available resources and cost considerations for both incumbents and opposition actors, and are mutually responsive. We also suggest that costs of manipulative strategies are shaped by the level of democratization. We test our hypotheses on time-seriescross-section data for 285 African elections from 1986 to 2012. We find that democratization initially leads to increases in vote buying as "cheap" forms of electoral manipulation available to incumbents such as intimidation and manipulating electoral administration become less viable.

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‘Shifting the Voting Burden to Others’: Abstainers and Turn Outers in Zimbabwean Elections

Mwonzora

2023

Electoral Politics in Zimbabwe, Volume I

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A framework for the systematic study of election quality

Cited by 114 publications

References 9 publications

International Influences on Elections in New Multiparty States

International Influences on Elections in New Multiparty States

Vote Buying is a Good Sign: Alternate Tactics of Fraud in Africa 1986-2012

‘Shifting the Voting Burden to Others’: Abstainers and Turn Outers in Zimbabwean Elections

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