CIAO DATE: 04/04

The Ethnopolitical Dynamics of Elections

Introduction

Elections are a key element in any political process because of their rule-legitimating function. They are, therefore, frequently used instruments at different levels of the political process (from local government to presidential elections) and in most types of political systems (from democracies to single-party totalitarian systems). In democratic and democratizing systems in particular, elections serve a variety of different purposes in addition to legitimating rule, including providing an institution for the expression of the popular will and providing mechanisms for peaceful change in government.

In multiethnic societies, elections have critical implications for the way in which the political process is conducted, precisely because they are about choice. At a very basic level, the acceptability of elections as way of (democratic) politics is at stake. Unless elections are perceived as having the potential of resulting in post-election institutions and politics that are broadly representative of the interests of a range of political actors, they are unlikely to be widely accepted among political elites and their constituencies (especially those that sense exclusion and discrimination) and are therefore unlikely to contribute to the establishment and/or preservation of nonviolent, democratic political processes. This is closely related to a second dimension of acceptability, namely to that of the electoral system according to which elections are to be conducted. If electoral systems are adopted that predictably lead to the exclusion or gross under-representation of certain groups, these groups have little incentive to legitimate such elections and their outcomes by participating in them. By the same token, even if elections as such and the rules according to which they are held are acceptable, this does not necessarily foreshadow a peaceful and stable democratic process in the aftermath. If the conduct of elections is flawed, if voterigging and intimidation occur, or if the outcome of elections is influenced in any other unfair way, elections will hardly pave the way towards establishing or maintaining a democratic process.

These negative case scenarios are meant merely as illustrations of what can potentially go wrong with elections, but not as a general deterrent against them. Elections play a crucial role in multiethnic societies both as potential catalysts of conflict and as mechanisms contributing to conflict termination, democratization, and sustainable, peaceful, democratic political processes. With these considerations in mind, this paper will examine the factors that contribute to elections in multiethnic societies resulting in stable and inclusive (or widely representative) political institutions. First, I look at different types of context in which elections are conducted — conflict termination, democratization, and full or consolidated democracy. Then I examine different aspects of elections themselves — election systems, campaigns, conduct and results — before offering some general conclusions about electoral and post-electoral politics in multiethnic societies. To begin with, I explore the concepts of stability and inclusiveness in multiethnic societies as the key objectives for elections to contribute to.

Full text (PDF format, 27 pages, 77 KB)