Project description
Election observation and assistance practices – impact on democracy
The practices of international election observation and assistance are influenced by rapid technological development. This includes the autocrats' attempt to undermine democratic institutions, and election manipulation. The EU-funded DemSupPra project will assess the significance and impact of these recent developments on democracies and the meaning and practicability of election observation and assistance today. The project will contribute to the conceptual, theoretical, and methodological innovation in studies of democracy support, explain the impact of these crises of democracy developments on the two practices, and improve cross-fertilisation between policy practice and academic research. DemSupPra will combine mapping of election observation and assistance with quantitative assessment of their adaptation to change and provide dissemination, communication, teaching, and training.
Objective
Democracy Support Practice After the Third Wave: Adapting to Change? (DemSupPra) aims to assess the significance and impact of three recent developments on the practices of international election observation and assistance: (1) rapid technological change (new voting technologies and communication revolution); (2) ‘social learning’ by autocrats, which made assaults against democratic institutions including elections less visible (‘fake compliance’); and (3) the use of the ballot box to ‘backslide’ or advance illiberal democracy (‘majoritarianism’). It asks how have these elements affected the two democracy support practices; and how have democracy supporters adapted to these developments? In doing so, the project also sets out to answers the policy relevant question, whether election observation and assistance are still fit for purpose. It seeks to suggest ways in which the effectiveness and credibility of the two practices may be strengthened, especially at a time when democracy and democratic institutions, including elections, are facing a fresh wave of contestation. The project’s objectives are to: (1) contribute to the conceptual, theoretical and methodological innovation in studies of democracy support, in particular election observation and assistance; (2) explain the impact of the three ‘crises of democracy’ developments on the two practices; (3) improve cross-fertilisation between policy practice and academic research. These objectives will be achieved through a mixed-methods approach that combines: mapping of election observation and assistance as practices and a quantitative assessment of their adaptation to change (WP1); with qualitative comparative case study design to investigate the impact of the ‘crisis of democracy’ developments (WP2); enriched by dissemination, communication and regular policy impact and public outreach endeavours (WP3); project and career management (WP4) teaching/training (WP5) and a secondment practice stage (S).
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Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
30123 Venezia
Italy