Authors-Meet-Critics: New Books on Election Violence by Siddiqui and Rosenzweig

Session Submission Type: Author meet critics

Session Description

Election-related violence is a rapidly growing area of study in research on electoral politics and political violence. New books by Niloufer Siddiqui and Steven Rosenzweig are important new contributions to this literature.

Siddiqui's Under the Gun (CUP 2022) asks: When do parties engage in, or facilitate, violence? What determines the strategies of violence that they employ? Drawing on data from Pakistan, the book argues that party violence is not a simple manifestation of weak state capacity but instead the intentional product of political incentives, further complicating the process of democratization. Using a rigorous multi-method approach based on over a hundred interviews and numerous surveys, the book demonstrates that a party's violence strategy depends on the incentives it faces in the subnational political landscape in which it operates, the cost it incurs from its voters for violent acts, and its organizational capacity for violence.

Rosenzweig’s Voter Backlash and Elite Misperception (CUP 2023) employs a wide array of data and empirical methods to demonstrate that – contrary to conventional wisdom – violence can be a costly strategy resulting in significant voter backlash. The book argues that politicians often fail to perceive these costs and thus employ violence as an electoral tactic even when its efficacy is doubtful. The book also shows that violence in founding elections – the first elections held under a new multiparty regime – has long-lasting effects on politicians’ (mis)perceptions about its usefulness, explaining why some countries’ elections suffer from recurrent bouts of violence while others do not.

This joint author-meets-critics panel brings together leading scholars--and a policy researcher from a large INGO--to discuss and debate the books' findings, implications, and next steps for further research. In addition to Siddiqui and Rosenzweig, panelists will include:

Fernanda Buril, International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES)
Ursula Daxecker, University of Amsterdam
Susan Hyde, University of California, Berkeley
Inken von Borzyskowski, University College London
Thomas Zeitzoff, American University

Sub Unit

• Division 11: Comparative Politics

Chair

• Susan D. Hyde University of California, Berkeley

Presenters

• Steven Rosenzweig Boston University

• Niloufer Siddiqui SUNY, University at Albany

• Ursula E. Daxecker University of Amsterdam

• Inken von Borzyskowski Oxford

• Fernanda Buril International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES)