This chapter examines the enumeration of ethnic populations in the census, where ‘the tribe question’ has been included since 1948. I trace its evolution – from its origins as self-evidently important with a self-evident list of groups – through numerous changes up to 2019. The powerful social imaginary of ‘42+ tribes’ comes from the 1969 census, despite the numerous changes since then. I show how changes in classifications over time, as well as the way they have been used and narrated by the state, reveal the multiple political purposes of classifying and counting ethnicity. In the colonial period, this centred on ethnic population distribution to support indirect rule via ethnicity, as well as tax collection and labour control. In the postcolonial period, ethnic demographic posturing for electoral purposes or ‘the tyranny of numbers’ became a major driver of interest in ‘the tribe question’. However, since 2009, the census has also been a site of recognition for minorities and of the painting of a portrait of a nation defined by its diversity. In this chapter, I also show how the quintessentially unambiguous nature of ethnic census codes has been rendered ambiguous in useful ways.

This chapter theorises ethnicity as a mode of thought and identification around which ways of being, acting and relating are organised. It is one among many possible anchors for identification, solidarity and difference, though it is the most prominent in Kenya. I discuss how this became so, describing identity and community before colonialism, and offering a history of how ethnicity organised social life under and after colonial rule, especially around elections. I provide a sketch of varied ethnic identifications in Kenya, demonstrating immense variety, not all of which obviously fit an ethnic framework, and many of which entail politics quite different from the ‘big 5’ which dominate studies of elections. Finally, I situate the case of Kenya in a comparative context, highlighting key features of how ethnic classification has operated in Kenya, including reification, colonial penetration, nationhood, demography, and differences between direct and diffuse effects of identification. This section shows that both ethnicity and its classification can be conducive to pluralism and solidarity in Kenya, but perhaps not in other contexts.

By asking how political communities are constructed and with what boundaries, this book has explored different conceptualizations of nation, different perceptions of territory and dynamics of unity and division. It has presented alternative notions of political community outside of the nation-state paradigm, in communities smaller than the state and going beyond the boundaries of the state. My work has devoted attention to the beginnings of political communities or to their reshaping processes. By establishing boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them’, these communities defined themselves at different levels: the local, regional, transnational and national levels. In the border region between Ghana and Togo, these political communities were built on top of each other, like a palimpsest, and intersected with the Ghanaian and Togolese states that used these dynamics to their advantage. This book endeavours to make us rethink the notion of the nation-state and its associated concepts in light of these dynamics: citizenship, elections, border and nation-state.

The reintroduction of multiparty elections threatened the survival of the Togolese regime, but they also represented an opportunity to remove potential enemies in neighbouring countries. In Togo, the transition to multiparty elections initiated a period of power contestation where the dictatorial regime of Gnassingbé Eyadema had to adapt, and by doing so, used cross-border mechanisms to its advantage. Chapter 8 shows the implications of cross-border voting in the international relations between Ghana and Togo when Rawlings and Eyadéma used elections in an attempt to topple each other in the 1990s. As a consequence, the chapter concludes on showing the far-reaching international consequences of the ways in which the local level scales up to the national and the transnational levels.

The chapter examines how moral rhetoric is used in party communication using dictionary-based text analysis of party manifestos. The main data include 158 manifestos from six English-speaking democracies (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States) across thirty-four elections. I first measure moral rhetoric in the aggregate. The measure captures the overall level of moral rhetoric used by a party in its campaign. I show that there is variation in moral rhetoric across countries and within countries. I also show the validity of the measurement approach and its robustness to alternatives. Overall, we learn that moral rhetoric is a distinct aspect of party messaging. I then explore patterns in more disaggregate measures of moral rhetoric. Analyses reveal that there are more commonalities in the ways that parties use moral rhetoric than one might expect. Building on the framework of the Moral Foundations Theory, I find that differences in the moral palettes of the left and the right that we can expect based on prior work are more nuanced and not as stark when we examine specific moral foundations separately and when we examine appeals at the level of issues.

This chapter reviews literature on game-theoretic analysis of voting. Both cooperative and noncooperative concepts are used to answer questions, such as, How do candidates or parties propose alternatives to voters in strategic interactions? Why do voters vote? What are the implications of asymmetric information for candidates’ and voters’ incentives? Do prevoting deliberations improve information sharing? If so, through what type of rules? Sophisticated voters may act strategically, and therefore it matters whether one’s choices are pivotal. In the presence of private information, the mechanism design approach is highly appropriate, as voters’ incentives can be heavily influenced by the institutional settings that determine how votes are transformed to election outcomes. The analysis of information aggregation in large-scale elections brings important insights to our understanding of representative democracy. Due to the nonexistence of a core and the cyclical structure of pairwise comparison, there may be a fundamental difficulty in the preference aggregation by majoritarian democracy in large-scale elections. The chapter concludes with questions for future research: How does the limitation of preference/information aggregation in large-scale elections affect the stability of representative democracy? What determines the robustness of democratic norms? What is the role of the media in the presence of information asymmetry, particularly in ideological battles where information filtering can play an exacerbating role?

Abraham Lincoln's political writings were the works of a practical politician, not a political philosopher. Yet, his understanding of American politics was deeply informed by wide and penetrating reading in 19th century liberal political economy. This reading convinced him to be a determined opponent of slavery, and a vigorous promoter of henry clay's 'American system.' both of these programs retained their hold on Lincoln, and when, after his election to the presidency of the United States in 1860, the republic was plunged into civil war over slavery, Lincoln guided the nation toward the erasure of legalized slavery and to an economy favourable to commerce and manufacturing. His victory in the civil war, cut short by his assassination in 1865, nevertheless changed the political culture of the nation for the next sixty years, and set the country on the slow but inexorable path of civil equality for the freed slaves.

Elections in Central Asia unfold against a backdrop of digital repression, characterized by network throttling, online content blocking to suppress dissent and targeted online harassment of political opposition and journalists. State-imposed limits on online information availability are compounded by cyber foreign interference, including espionage, information campaigns, and disruptive incidents that have increasingly played a geopolitical role. These multifaceted cyber threats underscore the urgent need for a rapid, concerted policy response aimed at bolstering the integrity of electoral systems and procedures, reducing censorship and enhancing cybersecurity culture and resilience. This chapter explores trends in influencing elections and threatening electoral integrity through cyber means, focusing on both the informational and technical domains, and proposes action-oriented recommendations for cross-sectoral cooperation toward securing elections and the broader digital ecosystem in the region.

In 2015, Russia’s state media regulator Roskomnadzor criminalized sharing information that criticizes and ridicules public figures. The crudity of some of the memes notwithstanding, the state’s swift and heavy-handed response was remarkable the Russian government was afraid of public laughter. In the following years, the state’s stance on internet jocularity only worsened, culminating in the infamous 2019 disrespect of authorities, laws, and a string of criminal cases against those who created or reposted playful memes that made fun of the church and other authorities. Since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government has grown even more intolerant, choking every voice of dissent. Nevertheless, many Russians continue to resist the official Kremlin narratives despite the threat of severe punishment; and humor remains one of their “weapons” of choice. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the role of humor in building resilience to authoritarianism and disinformation, especially among the younger generation of Russians. As public jocularity continues to be a powerful resource in both the ongoing struggle for democracy in Russia and in the crackdown on it, we examine humor in the context of the 2022 Russian invasion in Ukraine and argue that social media plays a role in amplifying humor and contributing to political change.

Evaluating attitudes toward democracy within an authoritarian political system is a complex endeavor. Numerous surveys indicate that a significant majority of Chinese citizens express satisfaction with the current level of democracy in China. To elucidate this intellectual puzzle, this chapter examines how differing understandings of democracy influence perceptions of satisfaction with the state of democratic governance. The findings reveal that Chinese citizens who regard elections and political rights as fundamental to democracy tend to be dissatisfied with the existing democratic framework. Similarly, individuals who espouse liberal democratic values also express dissatisfaction with the current state of democracy.