Democratic Electoral Reform?

Redesigning Elections in Comparative Perspective

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 electoral system reform.  However, the electoral cycle approach to elections emphasises that elections involves many sets of laws, institutions and practices beyond electoral systems.

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 will see the launch of new guidelines on electoral reform from the Global Network for Securing Electoral Integrity at the keynote panel.

Provisional Programme

Day 1: 19th March

10:00: Panel 1

  • ‘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 keynote Panel: Guidelines for democratic electoral reforms

  • Global Network for Securing Electoral Integrity

16:00 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 - country case studies

  • SCHEDULE TO FOLLOW

Day 3: 21st March - country case studies

  • SCHEDULE TO FOLLOW

Format

The workshop is entirely online, free and open to all

REGISTRATION

Registration will open early in 2025.

Deadlines and process

Deadline for full papers to be uploaded to the website ahead of the conference: 10 March 2025 (link to follow).

Word length 7,000 words.