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Norris counters current pessimism about the effectiveness of democratic programs monitoring and assisting elections worldwide, arguing for international engagement.
List of contents
Part I. Introduction: Does Electoral Assistance Work?: 1. The pragmatic case for electoral assistance; Part II. Evaluating Electoral Assistance: 2. What is electoral assistance?; 3. Evaluating effectiveness; 4. Threats and opportunities facing electoral assistance; Part III. The Strengths and Weaknesses of Electoral Assistance Programs: 5. Reforming electoral laws; 6. Strengthening women's representation; 7. Supporting independent media; 8. Regulating political finance; 9. Improving voter registration; Part IV. Conclusions: Lessons Learned: 10. Making electoral assistance work better.
About the author
Pippa Norris is the McGuire Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and Laureate Fellow and Professor of Government and International Relations at Sydney University. She is the director of the Electoral Integrity Project. Recent books by this award-winning author include Driving Democracy (Cambridge, 2008), Cosmopolitan Communications (Cambridge, 2009), Democratic Deficit (Cambridge, 2011), Making Democratic Governance Work (Cambridge, 2012), Why Electoral Integrity Matters (Cambridge, 2014), and Why Elections Fail (Cambridge, 2015).
Summary
Norris offers a theoretical framework for comparing the strengths and weaknesses of agencies and programs with the threats and opportunities for electoral assistance worldwide, establishing a new research agenda in comparative politics, development studies, electoral studies, and voting behavior, and arguing the case for international democratic programs.
