The Time Question: Effects of Election Monitoring on Election Violence

• In Event: Comparative Electoral Institutions

Abstract

How do different forms of election monitoring affect election violence? Recent literature on election violence shows that election violence is not only contained around the limited days around the election but also spread across the electoral period ranging at least from the nomination stage. In this study, I consider the probability of a temporal variation in the monitoring capacity of domestic and international monitors in reducing election violence. I examine the effect of the two forms of monitoring on four separate stages around an election: pre-campaign, campaign, election day and post-election. Since domestic monitors are present for a longer stretch of time, especially covering the pre-campaign period and a longer-term post-election period, I examine whether they are more able to reduce election violence in these phases.

Author

• Fariha Tabassum, Michigan State University