Electoral violence in conflict-ridden societies: Concepts, causes, and consequences

Terrorism and Political Violence

Volumn 21, Issue 3, 2009, Pages 412-427

  Höglund, Kristine ^a  

^a UPPSALA UNIVERSITY   (Sweden)

Author keywords

Civil war; Conflict; Elections; Politics; Violence

Indexed keywords

EID: 70449670712     PISSN: 09546553     EISSN: 15561836     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09546550902950290     Document Type: Article

References (75)

1. In a study by the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), a preliminary analysis of all elections in 2001 is made. It reports a total of 300 deaths in connection to elections that year.
2. Jeff Fischer, Electoral Conflict and Violence: A Strategy for Study and Prevention, IFES White Paper (Washington D.C.: International Foundation for Election Systems, 2002). However, evidence from numerous case studies place the figures much higher. For instance, in the 1997 election in Kenya, more than 100 people were killed in ethnically motivated violence ahead of the elections and some 100,000 people left Mombasa during the election period. Another 200 people in Rift Valley faced a violent death.
3. See Liisa Laakso, Insights into Electoral Violence in Africa, in Matthias Basedau, Gero Erdmann, and Andreas Mehler, eds., Votes, Money and Violence: Political Parties and Sub-Saharan Africa (Uppsala: NAI, 2007), 7-9. The December 2007 election has been deemed even more violent.
4. Donald L. Horowitz, Making Moderation Pay: The Comparative Politics of Ethnic Conflict Management, in Joseph V. Montville, ed., Conflict and Peacemaking in Multiethnic Societies (New York: Lexington Books, 1991)
5. Donald L. Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict, 2nd edition (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000);
6. Arend Lijphart, Democracy in Plural Societies (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977);
7. Benjamin Reilly and Andrew Reynolds, Electoral Systems and Conflict in Divided Societies, in Paul C. Stern and Daniel Druckman, Conflict Resolution after the Cold War (Washington D.C.: National Academy Press, 2000)
8. Benjamin Reilly, Democracy in Divided Societies: Electoral Engineering for Conflict Management (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001);
9. Timothy D. Sisk, Power Sharing and International Mediation in Ethnic Conflict (Washington D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1996).
10. Krishna Kumar, ed., Postconflict Elections, Democratization, and International Assistance (Boulder & London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998)
11. Terrence Lyons, Demilitarizing Politics: Elections on the Uncertain Road to Peace (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2005)
12. Richard W. Soudriette and Juliana Geran Pilon, Every Vote Counts: The Role of Elections in Building Democracy (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2007).
13. Matthias Basedau, Gero Erdmann, and Andreas Mehler, eds., Votes, Money and Violence: Political Parties and Sub-Saharan Africa (Uppsala: NAI, 2007);
14. de Gaay Fortman, 'Elections and Civil Strife: Some Implications for International Election Observation, in Jon Abbink and Gerti Hesseling, eds., Election Observation and Democratization in Africa (Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1999);
15. Fischer (see note 1 above); David C. Rapoport and Leonard Weinberg, Elections and Violence, in David C. Rapoport and Leonard Weinberg, eds., The Democratic Experience and Political Violence (London: Frank Cass Publishers, 2001).
16. Darlene Damm, Managing Election Violence in Cambodia: New Strategies for the International Donor Community, Draft Report 1 December 2003. Johns Hopkins University: International Donor Community Cambodia Steering Committee; Laakso (see note 1 above); Siegfried Pausewang, Kjetil Trondvall, and Lovise Aalen, eds., Ethiopia since the Derg: A Decade of Democratic Pretension and Performance (London: Zed Books, 2002); Steven Wilkinson, Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and Ethnic Riots in India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
17. In some definitions of democracy, competitive elections are the defining characteristic. See, for instance, the classic definition by Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, 4th ed (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1952), 269: the democratic method is that institutional arrangement for arriving at political decisions in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of a competitive struggle for the people's vote.
18. Rapoport and Weinberg (see note 4 above).
19. For instance, the 1947 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 21) first declared the right to elections, and the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 25) stated: to vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which will be by universal and equal suffrage which shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing of the free expression of the will of the electors, cited in Rafael Lopez-Pintor, Electoral Management Bodies as Institutions of Governance (New York: UNDP, 2000), 88.
20. Rafael Lopez-Pintor, Reconciliation Elections: A Post-Cold War Experience, in Krishna Kumar, ed., Rebuilding Societies After Civil War: Critical Roles for International Assistance (Boulder & London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1997) uses the term reconciliation elections to denote such elections.
21. Kumar (see note 3 above), 1.
22. Fabrice Lehoucq, Electoral Fraud: Causes, Types, and Consequences, Annual Review of Political Science 6 (2003), 233.
23. Ashish Chaturvedi, Rigging Election with Violence, Public Choice 125 (2005) and Andreas Schedler, The Menu of Manipulation, Journal of Democracy 13, no. 2 (2002).
24. There may be a fine line between political violence and criminal violence, in particular in the context of a violent struggle. During armed conflict, the boundaries of political and criminal activity become blurred. For instance, kidnappings, extortion, and other criminal activities are often used to sustain the violent activities with political aims.
25. This is the common denominator of the definitions of electoral violence that I have found. See, for instance, Fischer (note 1 above), Laakso (note 1 above), and Rapoport and Weinberg (note 4 above).
26. Two attempts to classify different types of electoral violence have been identified in the literature. Rapoport and Weinberg (note 4 above, 34) present a typology of electoral violence which distinguishes between three types: the election principle might be rejected; the principle might be valid but the application is not, as when citizens belong to different communities; and the most common and complex occurs when participants understand a particular instance to be unfair, but they do not explicitly reject the principle or system. Fischer (note 1 above, 9-10) distinguishes between different types of electoral conflict and violence: 1) identity conflict, 2) campaign conflict, 3) balloting conflict, 4) results conflict, and 5) representation conflict.
27. Benjamin Reilly, Post-Conflict Elections: Constrains and Dangers, International Peacekeeping 9, no. 2 (2002), 125.
28. Lopez-Pintor, Reconciliation Elections: A Post-Cold War Experience (see note 9 above).
29. Ian McAllister, The Armalite and the Ballot Box: Sinn Fein's Electoral Strategy in Northern Ireland, Electoral Studies 23 (2004), 140.
30. Stephen John Stedman, Donald Rothchild, and Elisabeth M. Cousens, eds., Ending Civil Wars: The Implementation of Peace Agreements (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2002); Mimmi Söderberg Kovacs, From Rebellion to Politics (Uppsala: Department of Peace and Conflict Research, 2007).
31. For the function of political parties, see Angelo Panebianco, Political Parties: Organization and Power (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), and Larry Diamond and Richard Gunther, eds., Political Parties and Democracy (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001).
32. Laakso (see note 1 above).
33. Neil DeVotta, Sri Lanka's Political Decay: Analysing the October 2000 and December 2001 Parliamentary Elections, Commonwealth & Comparative Politics 41, no. 2 (2003), 137.
34. Rapoport and Weinberg (see note 4 above), 42.
35. Some scholars also include activities aimed at media, the judiciary, and civil society. See, for instance, the work by Damm (see note 5 above).
36. Fischer (see note 1 above), 9.
37. There are two main organizations documenting election violence in Sri Lanka-the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) and the People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL). In the district of Jaffna only 1.21% went to the polls.
38. Laakso (see note 1 above).
39. Pausewang, Trondvall, and Aalen (see note 5 above).
40. Rapoport and Weinberg (see note 4 above), 18.
41. Leonard Wantchekon, On the Nature of the First Democratic Elections, Journal of Conflict Resolution 43, no. 2 (1999), 253.
42. Wilkinson (see note 5 above), 50.
43. Edward D. Mansfield and Jack Snyder, Democratic Transitions and War: From Napoleon to the Millennium's End, in Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson, and Pamela Aall, eds., Turbulent Peace: The Challenges of Managing International Conflict (Washington D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press; 2001)
44. Jack Snyder, From Voting to Violence (New York&London: W.W. Norton &Company, 2000). Some research indicates that military coups most often happen during election times: David C. Rapoport, The Political Dimensions of Military Usurpation, Political Science Quarterly 83, no. 4 (1968).
45. Robert Dahl, Polyarchy: Participation and Competition (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1971)
46. Roland Paris, At War's End: Building Peace after Civil Conflict (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004)
47. Dankwart A. Rustow, Transitions to Democracy: Toward a Dynamic Model, Comparative Politics 2, no. 3 (1970).
48. Rod Hague, Martin Harrop, and Shaun Breslin, Comparative Government and Politics: An Introduction, 3rd edition (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992), 467. Patrimonialism as a term was first used by Max Weber. See also Herbert Kitschelt and Steven Wilkinson, Patrons, Clients and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
49. Joel S. Migdal, Strong Societies and Weak States (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988)
50. Robert H. Jackson and Carl G. Rosberg, Personal Rule: Theory and Practice in Africa, Comparative Politics 16, no. 4 (1984).
51. William Reno, Patronage Politics and the Behaviour of Armed Groups, Civil Wars 9, no. 4.
52. Thomas Ohlson and Mimmi Söderberg, From Intra-State War to Democratic Peace in Weak States, Uppsala Peace Research Papers, no. 5 (2002), 10.
53. Carrie Manning, Party-building on the Heels of War: El Salvador, Bosnia, Kosovo and Mozambique, Democratization 14, no. 2 (2007); Paris (see note 32 above), 190.
54. Chrissie Steenkamp, The Legacy of War: Conceptualising a 'Culture of Violence' to Explain Violence after Post Accords, The Round Table 94, no. 379 (2005), 253-254.
55. Gavin Cawthra and Robin Luckham, Governing Insecurity: Democratic Control of Military and Security Establishments in Transitional Democracies (London: Zed Books, 2003); Samuel P. Huntington, The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957).
56. Damm (see note 5 above).
57. Paris (see note 33 above).
58. Rapoport and Weinberg (see note 4 above), 31.
59. Jorgen Elking and Palle Svensson Elklit, The Rise of Election Monitoring: What Makes Elections Free and Fair?, Journal of Democracy 8, no. 3 (1997).
60. Kristine Höglund, Violence in War-to-Democracy Transitions, in Anna Jarstad and Timothy Sisk, War-to-Democracy Transitions: Dilemmas of Peacebuilding, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 85.
61. Lehoucq (see note 11 above), 253.
62. de Gaay Fortman (see note 4 above), 76.
63. Wilkinson (see note 5 above), 25.
64. Rapoport and Weinberg (see note 4 above), 19.
65. Nancy Bermeo, What the Democratization Literature Says or Doesn't Say about Postwar Democratization, Global Governance 9, no. 2 (2003), 165.
66. Rapoport and Weinberg (note 4 above), 20; Wantchekon (see note 30 above), 246.
67. Reilly, Post-Conflict Elections: Constrains and Dangers (see note 16 above), 127.
68. For a useful overview of electoral systems designs and the arguments for and against the integrative or consociationalist approach, see Benjamin Reilly and Andrew Reynolds (see note 2 above). On how electoral system design affects political behavior more generally, see, for instance Pippa Norris, Electoral Engineering: Voting Rules and Political Behavior (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
69. Lyons (see note 3 above), 111.
70. See Lopez-Pintor, Electoral Management Bodies as Institutions of Governance (see note 8 above) and Robert A. Pastor, The Role of Election Administration in Democratic Transitions: Implications for Policy and Research, Democratization 6, no. 4 (1999), for detailed analyses of the different types and merits of electoral management bodies (EMBs).
71. Carrie Manning, Competition and Accommodation in Post-Conflict Democracy: The Case of Mozambique, Democratization 8, no. 2 (2001), 151-159.
72. Jon Abbink and Gerti Hesseling, eds., Election Observation and Democratization in Africa (Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1999)
73. Jennifer McCoy, Larry Gerber, and Robert Pastor, Pollwatching and Peacemaking, Journal of Democracy 2, no. 4 (1991). On the different dimensions of the democratic qualities of elections
74. Staffan I. Lindberg, The Democratic Qualities of Competitive Elections: Participation, Competition and Legitimacy in Africa, Commonwealth & Comparative Politics 42, no. 1 (2004).
75. Fischer (see note 1 above), 31.