The Credibility Challenge: How Democracy Aid Influences Election Violence

Session Submission Type: Author meet critics

Session Description

This is a "Author Meets Critics" roundtable to discuss a new book by Inken von Borzyskowski called "The Credibility Challenge: How Democracy Aid Influences Election Violence" (Oxford University Press, 2019). Professor von Boryskowski is an assistant professor at Florida State University, and the roundtable brings together senior scholars from comparative politics and international relations, as well as one based at a Washington, DC, think-tank, to offer commentary.

Von Borzyskowski argues that the key to the impact of international election support is credibility; credible elections are less likely to turn violent. The book answers four major questions: under what circumstances can election support influence election violence? How can election support shape the incentives of domestic actors to engage in or abstain from violence? Does support help reduce violence or increase it? And, which type of support —observation or technical assistance—is best in each instance? The Credibility Challenge pulls broad quantitative evidence and also qualitative case materials from Guyana, Liberia, Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Bangladesh to respond to these questions. What von Borzyskowski finds is that international democracy aid matters for election credibility and violence; election observers can exacerbate post-election violence if they cast doubt on election credibility; and technical election assistance helps build electoral institutions, improves election credibility, and reduces violence. Her results advance research and policy on peacebuilding and democracy promotion in new and surprising ways.

The book brings together insights from conflict processes (election violence) and democratization (democracy aid), while also contributing to the literature that explores international sources of domestic politics. It is also policy relevant at a time when serious questions are being asked about the current paradigms of democracy assistance. The roundtable should be of interest to scholars from different parts of the discipline.

The roundtable is comprised of the following scholars:

1) Inken von Borzyskowski, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Florida State, and author of the book being discussed
2) Stephanie Burchard, Research Fellow in the Africa Program at the Institute for Defense Analysis, who has written widely on election violence in African societies
3) Susan Hyde, Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley, who is one of the leading scholars of democratization and election support
4) Sara Mitchell, Professor of Political Science at the University of Iowa, who is a leading scholar of international relations
5) Michael Tierney, Professor of Government and International Relations at the College of William and Mary and co-founder of the AidData Center for Development Policy
6) Irfan Nooruddin, Professor at Georgetown University, who has written extensively on difficulties of post-conflict democratization.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 21: Conflict Processes

Chair

• Irfan Nooruddin Georgetown University

Presenters

• Susan D. Hyde University of California, Berkeley

• Michael J. Tierney College of William & Mary

• Sara McLaughlin Mitchell University of Iowa

• Stephanie Marie Burchard Institute for Defense Analyses

• Inken von Borzyskowski Florida State University