Electoral Reform

Democratic principles and global practice

Online workshop, 19-21st March 2025

Organised by the Electoral Integrity Project and Westminster Foundation for Democracy

Convenor: Toby S. James (t.s.james@uea.ac.uk)

Election quality varies enormously around the world. Given concerns about global democratic backsliding, the issue of how to improve and protect election quality is a pressing policy problem. Passing reforms to improve the quality of elections, however, has often proved difficult to achieve. Incumbent governments may be reluctant to reform the rules which brought them to power. Should they have a majority in the legislature, they may seek to pass reforms which make it easier for them to win in the future, potentially further causing election quality to decline. Electoral reform may also struggle to appear on the policy agenda ahead of issues such as the economy, law and order or education. Governments may also be unfairly criticised for ‘rigging’ the electoral process by sceptical publics – when their proposals might be beneficial for electoral integrity.

Academic research has tended to focus on the effects of electoral laws - leading to prescriptions about the reforms which should be made. However, there has been much less attention on the process of making electoral laws. Who should be involved? When should they take place? What practices are there to win trust amongst stakeholders and the public?

This conference is a collaboration between the Electoral Integrity Project and The Westminster Foundation for Democracy. The workshop will consider following themes and questions:

What principles should underpin the electoral reform process?
What are the barriers to ensuring that the electoral reform process is democratic, inclusive, transparent and consensus oriented?
How can public trust be maintained?
What interventions can be adopted to help to ensure ‘good’ electoral reform?
Case studies of electoral reforms where the electoral process was strengthened / undermined.

The workshop is underpinned by the launch of new guidelines on electoral reform from the Global Network for Securing Electoral Integrity at the keynote panel. Papers on day 2 and 3 then provide county case studies to explore the extent to which the principles were followed and why (not).

The workshop aims to come to come conclusions about the barriers and policies which can be enacted to bring about democratic electoral reform which meets the principles.

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Provisional Programme

Day 1: 19th March

10:00 GMT

Panel 1: challenges in making electoral laws democratically

‘Electoral Reform: Democratic Principles and Global Practice’ Toby James (University of East Anglia and LSE)
‘Long-Termism and Short-Termism in Campaign Finance and Election Reform’, Robert Boatright, Clark University, USA.
‘The balance between robust, transparent and practicable elections in the Netherlands’, Joris Gijsenbergh, Electoral Council of the Netherlands
‘External influences on electoral reform’, Nikola Donev, Faculty of Law "Iustinianus Primus"- Skopje
‘Building a deliberative imagination: public trust and political time in electoral reform,’ Ceri Davies, National Centre for Social Research, UK
Beyond Election Monitoring: Advancing Electoral Reforms in the Philippines through Development Entrepreneurship’ Rona Ann Caritos, Legal Network for Truthful Elections, Philippines.

14:00 GMT

Panel 2: keynote Panel: Guidelines for democratic electoral reforms

Speakers: Tanja Hollstein (Westminster Foundation for Democracy), Michael McNulty (USAID), Therese Pearce-Laanela (IDEA), Carla Luís (VotedHR and Coimbra University) and Brizza Rosales (ANFREL)
Electoral reforms can impact the distribution of power and while the content is important the process of reform needs to receive the same attention. The Global Network for Securing Electoral Integrity (GNSEI) developed the Principles for Democratic Electoral Reform Processes to provide stakeholders with guideposts to identify, structure and monitor electoral reform processes in a democratic way aligned to global best practices. The roundtable will reflect on different electoral reform challenges and how the Principles can be used to mitigate those.

16:00 GMT

Panel 3: National case studies

‘Polish Electoral Code 2011-2024 - an evidence-based reform?’ Anna Frydrych-Depka, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland
Redesigning Elections for Democratic Integrity: Principles, Barriers, and Pathways to Reform: Case Study of Nigeria’s Elections from 1999 - 2023, Edward Agbai, Emmanuel University, Raleigh, NC, USA
‘Electoral reforms 2014-2024: a case study of Lithuania’ Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania
Spain: improving the electoral system by recognizing the right to vote of all people with intellectual disabilities’ Victor Pascaul, University Comillas Madrid, Spain
‘Lessons Learned and the Way Forward for European Electoral Reforms’, Armin Rabitsch

Day 2: 20th March

10:00 GMT

Panel 4: National case studies

India by Zaad Mahmood Associate (Presidency University, India)

Ghana by Ransford Edward Van Gyampo and Emmanuel Graham (University of Ghana, Ghana)
South Africa by Dirk Kotze (University of South Africa, South Africa)

14:00 GMT

Panel 5: National case studies

Ukraine by Erik Herron and Khrystyna Pelchar (West Virginia University, USA)
USA by Tova Wang (Harvard University, USA)
Mexico by Víctor Hernández-Huerta (Wake Forest University, USA).

16:00 GMT

Panel 6: National case studies

Netherlands by Leontine Loeber (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands).
Peru by Narda Carranza (International IDEA, Sweden)
Mauritius by Sheetal Sheena Sookrajowa (University of Mauritius, Mauritius) and Allison McCulloch (Brandon University, Canada)