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ECPR General Conference: Democracies at Risk Stream


ECPR General Conference, Hamburg

 Democracies at Risk Section

The 2018 ECPR General Conference was held at Universität Hamburg in northern Germany. ECPR’s General Conference remains Europe's largest annual gathering of political scientists, often attracting more than 2,000 scholars from throughout the world and at all stages of their career. 

Jeffery Karp and Hanna Wass co-chaired a section on Democracies at Risk. The section was organized in collaboration between the Electoral Integrity Project and the ECPR Standing Group on Public Opinion and Voting Behavior in Comparative Perspective.

Details

  • Date: August 22-25, 2018

  • Location: Hamburg, Germany

  • Organizer: ECPR

For more information, please go to the ECPR event website.

 

Abstract

Elections are at the heart of liberal democracies but they are not without their problems. Allegations are made about electoral fraud. Fake news is disseminated. Voting rights are suppressed. District boundaries are gerrymandered. Campaign finance provides a skewed playing field for parties. Independent media are muzzled. Citizens are ill-informed about choices. Balloting is disrupted by bloodshed. Official records are hacked. Ballot boxes are stuffed. Each of these diverse problems can generate contentious elections characterized by lengthy court challenges, opposition boycotts, public protest, or, at worst, deadly violence. These problems erode public trust, undermine electoral legitimacy and put democracy at risk. 

 

Panels


Elections at Risk: The Dark Side of Political Communication and Mobilisation

Thursday 23 August 2018 09:00 Building: VMP 5 Floor: 2 Room: 2197

Bojan Todosijevic. Civic Virtues and Political Participation: The Role of Normative and Evaluative Attitudes on Electoral Turnout in Serbia and Montenegro.

Max Grömping. Electoral Management and Perceptions of Subnational Electoral Integrity in Mexico.

Maarja Lühiste. How Abuse and Harassment Marginalize Female Political Voices on Social Media.

 

Electoral Equality at Risk

Thursday 23 August 2018 11:00 Building: VMP 5 Floor: 2 Room: 2197

Johanna Peltoniemi. Elections Go! Delivering Youth Political Participation.

Alistair Clark. Political Legitimacy, Partisanship and Polarization: Debates Over Electoral Integrity and Quality in Britain.

Hugo Leal. The Manufacture of Dissent: Misinformation and the Mainstreaming of the European Margins.

Hanna Lierse. Wealth Inequality and Democratic Representation.

 

You Can’t Fool All the People All the Time: Political Trust at Risk

Thursday 23 August, 2018 15:50 Building: VMP 5 Floor: 2 Room: 2197

Marlene Mauk. Electoral Malpractice and Political Trust in Democratic and Autocratic Regimes.

TBC Electoral Management and Perceptions of Subnational Electoral Integrity in Mexico.

Staffan Kumlin. One Effect Does Not Fit All? Welfare State Dissatisfaction and Political Distrust in Europe, 2008-2016.

Lisanne de Blok. What You Get is What You Give? Personal Experience and Political Trust: Examining the Causal Mechanism Underlying Policy Feedback.

 

Rising Cynicism and the Participation Gap

Friday 24 August 2018 09:00 Building: VMP 5 Floor: 2 Room: 2197

Claire Bynner. Sitting in the Fire of Difficult Dialogues – Public Participation in a Super-Diverse Neighbourhood.

Merja Jutila Roon. The Dynamics of Popular Pressure Behind Policy Reversals.

Mikko Rask. Toward a Theory of Fourth Sector Involvement.

Paul-Erik Korvela. Trust Never Sleeps.

Richard Rose. What Drives Referendum Support: Populism, Distrust or Participation?

 

Mitigating Electoral Violence

Friday 24 August 2018 11:00 Building: VMP 5 Floor: 2 Room: 2197

Christian Von Soest. International Sanctions and Elite Splits in Electoral Authoritarian Regimes: A Conceptual Framework.

Mascha Rauschenbach. Mitigating Electoral Violence? The Effect of Mandatory Voting.

Hannah Smidt. UN Peacekeeping, Informal Institutions and Intercommunal Election Violence: A Quantitative Case Study of Ivory Coast.

Haley Swedlund. Understanding International Response to Sudden Regime Change.

Inken von Borzyskowski. What Works in Preventing Election Violence? Evidence from Liberia and Kenya.

 

Other ECPR panels that featured the Electoral Integrity Project:

Perspectives on Political Protest 

Saturday 25 August 2018 14:00 Building: VMP 5 Floor: 2 Room: 2067

Sophia Hunger and Jasmine Lorenzini. Action Repertoires in Times of Crises: A Comparison of Eastern, Northwestern, and Southern Europe

Büke BoşnakGendering Europeanization? The Case of Civil Society in Turkey

Sarah Cameron. Political Protest and the Economic Crisis in Cross-National Comparison

Yaşar Şaşioğlu. The Anatomy of the Arab Spring: An Analysis with a Typology of Revolutions