ELECTORAL VIOLENCE: A CHALLENGE TO SECURITY
Keywords:
Keywords: Electoral violence, elections, prevention of electoral violenceAbstract
Abstract: This paper focuses on electoral violence as a subset of political violence, and analyses this concept by examining the complexity of motives, actors, activities it involves, as well as pointing out contextual characteristics that contribute to the occurrence of violent events. Electoral violence can be observed at all stages of the election process - before the election, on election day and after the election. It can involve state, non-state and international groups, as either perpetrators or targets. Its forms range from various pressures, intimidations to physical and deadly violence against voters, candidates, politicians, government officials, police, military, journalists, or international observers. Electoral violence is usually linked to undemocratic regimes, but even well-established democracies are not immune to it. The prevention of electoral violence functions as an extensive network of programs led by international organizations providing assistance in improving conditions for free and fair elections and changing the attitudes around violence. The results of such prevention remain far from ideal, despite decades of efforts and important funding. Nonetheless, prevention and promotion of election integrity remain indispensable methods in combating electoral violence. Increasingly complete databases (CREV, ECAV, NELDA) allow researchers to gain a better insight into what causes electoral violence, allowing for more effective marking of security risks and prevention activities.
References
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Birch, S. (2011). Electoral Malpractice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Birch, S., Daxecker, U., & Höglund, K. (2020). Electoral violence: An introduction. Journal of Peace Research, 57(1), 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343319889657
Birch, S. & Muchlinski, D. (2017). Electoral violence: Patterns and trends. In: H. Garnett & M. Zavadskaya (eds.). Electoral Integrity and Political Regimes: Actors, Strategies and Consequences, (pp.100–112), New York & London: Routledge.
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Birch, S. & Muchlinski, D. (2020). The Dataset of Countries at Risk of Electoral Violence, Terrorism and political violence, 32(2), 217–236. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2017.1364636
Birnir, J.K. & Gohdes, A. (2018). Voting in the shadow of violence: Electoral politics and conflict. Journal of Global Security Studies, 3(2), 181–197. https://doi.org/10.1093/jogss/ogy001
von Borzyskowski, I. (2015). Peacebuilding Beyond Civil Wars: UN Election Assistance and Election Violence: Working paper. https://www.peio.me/wp-content/uploads/PEIO8/ Borzyskowski %2021.1.2015.pdf (Accessed 11.08.2021.)
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Claes, J. & Macdonald, G. (2016). Findings and Conclusion. In: J. Claes (ed.), Electing Peace: Violence Prevention and Impact at the Polls (pp. 195–220), Washington: United States Institute for Peace.
Collier, P. & Vicente, P.C. (2014). Votes and Violence: Evidence Form a Field Experiment in Nigeria. Economic Journal 124(574), F327–F355. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecoj.12109
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Fjelde, H., & Höglund, K. (2016). Electoral Institutions and Electoral Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa. British Journal of Political Science, 46(2), 297–320. http://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123414000179
Goldsmith, A. A. (2015). Elections and civil violence in new multiparty regimes: Evidence from Africa. Journal of Peace Research, 52(5), 607–621. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343315576014
Hafner-Burton, E. M., Hyde, S. D., & Jablonski, R. S. (2014). When Do Governments Resort to Election Violence? British Journal of Political Science, 44(1), 149–179. http://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123412000671
Harish, S., & Little, A. (2017). The Political Violence Cycle. American Political Science Review, 111(2), 237–255. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055416000733
Harish, S.P. & Toha, T. (2019). A New Typology of Electoral Violence: Insights from Indonesia, Terrorism and Political Violence, 31(4), 687–711, DOI: 10.1080/09546553.2016.1277208
Heger, L. L. (2015). Votes and violence: Pursuing terrorism while navigating politics. Journal of Peace Research, 52(1), 32–45. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343314552984
Höglund, K. (2009). Electoral Violence in Conflict-Ridden Societies: Concepts, Causes, and Consequences, Terrorism and Political Violence, 21(3), 412427.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09546550902950290
Horowitz, L.D. (2000). Ethnic Groups in Conflict. (2nd edition). Berkeley: University of California Press
Kehailia, G. (2014). Countering Electoral Violence with Electoral Education. In: A. Cyllah (ed.) Elections Worth Dying For? A Selection of Case Studies From Africa, (pp. 29–45). Washington: International Foundation for Electoral Systems, https://www.ifes.org/sites/default/files/elections_worth_dying_for_-_a_selection_of_case_ studies_ from_africa_final2.pdf (accessed 10.06.2021.)
Lijphart, A. (1977). Democracy in plural societies: a comparative exploration. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Mares, I. & Young, L. (2016). Buying, expropriating, and stealing votes. Annual Review of Political Science, 19, 267–288. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-060514-120923
Matanock, A.A. (2017). Electing Peace: From Civil Conflict to Political Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Matanock, A. M., & Staniland, P. (2018). How and Why Armed Groups Participate in Elections. Perspectives on Politics, 16(3), 710–727. http://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592718001019
Norris, P. (2004). Electoral Engineering: Voting Rules and Political Behavior. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Norris, P. (2014). Why Elections Fail. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Norris, P., Frank, R. & Martinez i Coma, F. (2015). The risks of contentious elections. In: P. Norris, R. Frank & F. Martinez i Coma (eds.), Contentious Elections: From Ballots to Barricades (pp.133–150). New York & London: Routledge.
Reilly, B. (2002). Elections in Post-Conflict Scenarios: Constraints and Dangers. International Peacekeeping, 9(2), 118139. https://doi.org/10.1080/714002729
Reilly, B. & Reynolds, A. (2000). Electoral Systems and Conflict in Divided Societies. In: P. C. Stern & D. Druckman (eds.), International conflict resolution after the Cold War (pp. 420483). Washington: National Academy Press.
Seeberg, M. B. , Wahman, M. & Skaaning, S-E. (2018). Candidate nomination, intra-party democracy, and election violence in Africa. Democratization, 25(6), 959977, DOI: 10.1080/13510347.2017.1420057
Snyder, J. (2000). From Voting to Violence: Democratization and Nationalist Conflict. New York: WW Norton.
Söderberg Kovacs, M. (2018). Introduction: The everyday politics of electoral violence in Africa. In: M. Söderberg Kovacs, J. Bjarnesen (eds.), Violence in African Elections: Between Democracy and Big Man Politics (pp. 1–25.), London: Zed.
Staniland, P. (2014). Violence and democracy. Comparative Politics 47(1), 99–118. DOI: 10.5129/001041514813623128
Taylor, C. F., Pevehouse, J. C., & Straus, S. (2017). Perils of pluralism: Electoral violence and incumbency in sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Peace Research, 54(3), 397–411. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343316687801
Trejo, G. & Ley, S. (2018). Why did drug cartels go to war in Mexico? Subnational party alternation, the breakdown of criminal protection, and the onset of large-scale violence. Comparative Political Studies, 51(7), 900–937.
United Nations Development Programme - UNDP (2009). Elections and conflict prevention - A Guide to Analysis, Planning and Programming. http://contentext.undp.org/aplaws_publications/2431678/Elections-Conflict-Prevention.pdf. (Accessed 10.6.2021.)
Westphal, T. (2021). Violence and the 2020 General Election. Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project https://healthyelections.org/sites/default/files/2021-06/Violence_2020_Election.pdf.
(Accessed 11.08.2021)
Bekoe, D. A. & Burchard, S. (2017). The contradictions of pre-election violence: The effects of violence on voter turnout in sub-Saharan Africa. African Studies Review, 60(2): 73–92. https://doi.org/10.1017/asr.2017.50
Birch, S. (2011). Electoral Malpractice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Birch, S. (2020). Electoral Violence, Corruption and Political Order. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Birch, S., Daxecker, U., & Höglund, K. (2020). Electoral violence: An introduction. Journal of Peace Research, 57(1), 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343319889657
Birch, S. & Muchlinski, D. (2017). Electoral violence: Patterns and trends. In: H. Garnett & M. Zavadskaya (eds.). Electoral Integrity and Political Regimes: Actors, Strategies and Consequences, (pp.100–112), New York & London: Routledge.
Birch, S. & Muchlinski, D. (2018). Electoral violence prevention: What works? Democratization, 25(3), 385–403. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2017.1365841
Birch, S. & Muchlinski, D. (2020). The Dataset of Countries at Risk of Electoral Violence, Terrorism and political violence, 32(2), 217–236. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2017.1364636
Birnir, J.K. & Gohdes, A. (2018). Voting in the shadow of violence: Electoral politics and conflict. Journal of Global Security Studies, 3(2), 181–197. https://doi.org/10.1093/jogss/ogy001
von Borzyskowski, I. (2015). Peacebuilding Beyond Civil Wars: UN Election Assistance and Election Violence: Working paper. https://www.peio.me/wp-content/uploads/PEIO8/ Borzyskowski %2021.1.2015.pdf (Accessed 11.08.2021.)
Burchard, S.M. (2015). Electoral Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa: Causes and Consequences. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
Cederman, L.-E., Gleditsch, K. S., & Hug, S. (2013). Elections and Ethnic Civil War. Comparative Political Studies, 46(3), 387–417. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414012453697
Cheibub, J. A., & Hays, J. C. (2017). Elections and Civil War in Africa. Political Science Research and Methods, 5(1), 81–102. http://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2015.33
Claes, J. & Macdonald, G. (2016). Findings and Conclusion. In: J. Claes (ed.), Electing Peace: Violence Prevention and Impact at the Polls (pp. 195–220), Washington: United States Institute for Peace.
Collier, P. & Vicente, P.C. (2014). Votes and Violence: Evidence Form a Field Experiment in Nigeria. Economic Journal 124(574), F327–F355. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecoj.12109
Condra, L.N., Long, J.D., Shaver, A.C. & Wright, A.L. (2018). The logic of insurgent electoral violence. American Economic Review 108(11), 3199–3231. doi.org/10.1257/aer.20170416
Daxecker, U. E. (2012). The cost of exposing cheating: International election monitoring, fraud, and post-election violence in Africa. Journal of Peace Research, 49(4), 503–516. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343312445649
Daxecker, U., Amicarelli, E., & Jung, A. (2019). Electoral contention and violence (ECAV): A new dataset. Journal of Peace Research, 56(5), 714–723. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343318823870
Dunning, T. (2011). Fighting and Voting: Violent Conflict and Electoral Politics. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 55(3), 327–339. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002711400861
Fischer, J. (2002). Electoral Conflict and Violence: A Strategy for Study and Prevention, IFES White Paper 2002-01. https://www.ifes.org/sites/default/files/econflictpaper.pdf (Accessed 11.8.2021).
Fjelde, H., & Höglund, K. (2016). Electoral Institutions and Electoral Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa. British Journal of Political Science, 46(2), 297–320. http://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123414000179
Goldsmith, A. A. (2015). Elections and civil violence in new multiparty regimes: Evidence from Africa. Journal of Peace Research, 52(5), 607–621. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343315576014
Hafner-Burton, E. M., Hyde, S. D., & Jablonski, R. S. (2014). When Do Governments Resort to Election Violence? British Journal of Political Science, 44(1), 149–179. http://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123412000671
Harish, S., & Little, A. (2017). The Political Violence Cycle. American Political Science Review, 111(2), 237–255. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055416000733
Harish, S.P. & Toha, T. (2019). A New Typology of Electoral Violence: Insights from Indonesia, Terrorism and Political Violence, 31(4), 687–711, DOI: 10.1080/09546553.2016.1277208
Heger, L. L. (2015). Votes and violence: Pursuing terrorism while navigating politics. Journal of Peace Research, 52(1), 32–45. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343314552984
Höglund, K. (2009). Electoral Violence in Conflict-Ridden Societies: Concepts, Causes, and Consequences, Terrorism and Political Violence, 21(3), 412427.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09546550902950290
Horowitz, L.D. (2000). Ethnic Groups in Conflict. (2nd edition). Berkeley: University of California Press
Kehailia, G. (2014). Countering Electoral Violence with Electoral Education. In: A. Cyllah (ed.) Elections Worth Dying For? A Selection of Case Studies From Africa, (pp. 29–45). Washington: International Foundation for Electoral Systems, https://www.ifes.org/sites/default/files/elections_worth_dying_for_-_a_selection_of_case_ studies_ from_africa_final2.pdf (accessed 10.06.2021.)
Lijphart, A. (1977). Democracy in plural societies: a comparative exploration. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Mares, I. & Young, L. (2016). Buying, expropriating, and stealing votes. Annual Review of Political Science, 19, 267–288. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-060514-120923
Matanock, A.A. (2017). Electing Peace: From Civil Conflict to Political Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Matanock, A. M., & Staniland, P. (2018). How and Why Armed Groups Participate in Elections. Perspectives on Politics, 16(3), 710–727. http://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592718001019
Norris, P. (2004). Electoral Engineering: Voting Rules and Political Behavior. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Norris, P. (2014). Why Elections Fail. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Norris, P., Frank, R. & Martinez i Coma, F. (2015). The risks of contentious elections. In: P. Norris, R. Frank & F. Martinez i Coma (eds.), Contentious Elections: From Ballots to Barricades (pp.133–150). New York & London: Routledge.
Reilly, B. (2002). Elections in Post-Conflict Scenarios: Constraints and Dangers. International Peacekeeping, 9(2), 118139. https://doi.org/10.1080/714002729
Reilly, B. & Reynolds, A. (2000). Electoral Systems and Conflict in Divided Societies. In: P. C. Stern & D. Druckman (eds.), International conflict resolution after the Cold War (pp. 420483). Washington: National Academy Press.
Seeberg, M. B. , Wahman, M. & Skaaning, S-E. (2018). Candidate nomination, intra-party democracy, and election violence in Africa. Democratization, 25(6), 959977, DOI: 10.1080/13510347.2017.1420057
Snyder, J. (2000). From Voting to Violence: Democratization and Nationalist Conflict. New York: WW Norton.
Söderberg Kovacs, M. (2018). Introduction: The everyday politics of electoral violence in Africa. In: M. Söderberg Kovacs, J. Bjarnesen (eds.), Violence in African Elections: Between Democracy and Big Man Politics (pp. 1–25.), London: Zed.
Staniland, P. (2014). Violence and democracy. Comparative Politics 47(1), 99–118. DOI: 10.5129/001041514813623128
Taylor, C. F., Pevehouse, J. C., & Straus, S. (2017). Perils of pluralism: Electoral violence and incumbency in sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Peace Research, 54(3), 397–411. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343316687801
Trejo, G. & Ley, S. (2018). Why did drug cartels go to war in Mexico? Subnational party alternation, the breakdown of criminal protection, and the onset of large-scale violence. Comparative Political Studies, 51(7), 900–937.
United Nations Development Programme - UNDP (2009). Elections and conflict prevention - A Guide to Analysis, Planning and Programming. http://contentext.undp.org/aplaws_publications/2431678/Elections-Conflict-Prevention.pdf. (Accessed 10.6.2021.)
Westphal, T. (2021). Violence and the 2020 General Election. Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project https://healthyelections.org/sites/default/files/2021-06/Violence_2020_Election.pdf.
(Accessed 11.08.2021)
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2021-11-26
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Social, Economic and Political Flows of Crime
