Why do parties and governments cheat in elections they cannot lose? This book documents the widespread use of blatant and excessive manipulation of elections and explains what drives this practice. Alberto Simpser shows that, in many instances, elections are about more than winning. Electoral manipulation is not only a tool used to gain votes, but also a means of transmitting or distorting information. This manipulation conveys an image of strength, shaping the behavior of citizens, bureaucrats, politicians, parties, unions and businesspeople to the benefit of the manipulators, increasing the scope for the manipulators to pursue their goals while in government and mitigating future challenges to their hold on power. Why Governments and Parties Manipulate Elections provides a general theory about what drives electoral manipulation and empirically documents global patterns of manipulation.
• Explains contemporary patterns of electoral manipulation that defy existing ideas and theories about it • Provides a general theory for under which conditions we might expect electoral manipulation to be excessive and blatant • Uses narrative case studies of Russia and Zimbabwe to illustrate the theory at work in an accessible manner
Contents
Preface: more than winning; 1. Introduction and overview; 2. Electoral manipulation: what it is and how to measure it; 3. The puzzle of excessive and blatant manipulation; 4. More than winning: the consequences of excessive and blatant electoral manipulation; 5. The strategic logic of electoral manipulation; 6. The theory at work: evidence from case studies; 7. Indirect effects of electoral manipulation: quantitative evidence; 8. Conclusion.
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