From Development to Dictatorship: Bolivia and the Alliance for Progress in the Kennedy Era

Brown Democracy Medal

by Thomas C. Field

The flaws in the American electoral process have become increasingly apparent in recent years. The contemporary tipping point in public awareness occurred during the 2000 election count, and concern deepened due to several major problems observed in the 2016 campaign, worsening party polarization, and corroding public trust in the legitimacy of the outcome.

To gather evidence about the quality of elections around the world, in 2012 the Electoral Integrity Project (EIP) was established as an independent research project based at Harvard and Sydney universities. The results show that experts rated American elections as the worst among all Western democracies. Without reform, these problems risk damaging the legitimacy of American elections--further weakening public confidence in political parties, Congress, and the U.S. government, depressing voter turnout, and exacerbating the risks of mass protests.

Why American Elections Are Flawed describes several major challenges observed during the 2016 U.S. elections arising from deepening party polarization over basic voting procedures, the serious risks of hacking and weak cyber-security, the consequences of deregulating campaign spending, and lack of professional and impartial electoral management. Pippa Norris outlines the core concept and measure of electoral integrity, the key yardstick used to evaluate free and fair elections. Evidence from expert and mass surveys demonstrate the extent of problems in American elections. She shows how these challenges could be addressed through several practical steps designed to improve electoral procedures and practices. If implemented, the reforms will advance free and fair elections, and liberal democracy, at home and abroad.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

296 pages, Paperback

Published January 15, 2018

Reviews

[Timur Markowitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great analysis. Really well done

[Archived Account - Not Active · Rating 4 out of 5]

A concise and cohesive analysis. Split into five main sections, Norris describes how electoral integrity and public trust has been impacted by structural weaknesses in the polling process throughout the years, how electoral integrity is measured, what flaws our current system has, as well as which measures should be taken to promote effective electoral reform. I read it for my freshman political science seminar called Conflict & Cooperation in college.

[Alora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful but wanted additional info

[Brandon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short read, about the length of a pamphlet, took between 20-30 minutes. It is about what the title says but very light on details and analysis. Reads like an executive summary of a report that I would have rather seen.

The main metric it refers to (rating the integrity of elections/democracy) comes from the organization it is essentially written by, the Electoral Integrity Project. The author, Pippa Norris, is the director. Some citations came across as self-referential when the source was the Electoral Integrity Project.

There were some interesting points. The comparisons of various state electoral administrations (US to Sweden to UK) was informative. Two axes were used to describe the electoral programs of all countries, governmental vs independent agency and centralized vs localized agency. Norris offered that the US may have the worst in terms of electoral integrity, governmental and localized (decentralized), which offers multiple vectors of corruption (thru partisanship politicking, gerrymandering, inadequate oversight, lack of proper standards and enforcement to name a few) that many of us can easily recognize in the US.

I can't really recommend it as I had expected more analysis or case studies in regards to the issue. The content is more appropriate for a magazine article rather than a book sold in local bookstores. May be good for policy buffs.